Arizona Army National Guard: the first one hundred years

180th Field Artillery Regiment
5425 East McDowell Road
P. O. Box 60512
Phoenix, Arizona 85082- 0512
( 602) 267- 2481 DSN 853- 2481
22 February 2002
Pamphlet Historical Activities
Number 870- 5
Arizona Army National Guard
The First One Hundred Years
This Pamphlet is one in the series of historical documents assembled for publication by the 180th
Field Artillery Regiment Association. Recognizing that yesterday and today’s achievement is
tomorrow’s history, these pamphlets document and record significant activities, events and
occurrences in the Arizona Army National Guard and the Arizona Artillery. Questions or
comments should be addressed to the above office.
Compiled and Edited By Colonel ( Ret) John L. Johnson
Associate Editor Colonel ( Ret) Charles G. Kroger, Command Historian
This Pamphlet supersedes all previous editions
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Tradition, Pride and Commitment
Table of Contents
Page
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Indian Menace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Raising the Arizona Volunteer Infantry
Regiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Arizona Volunteers Begin Duty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Camp Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Discharge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Organized Militia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Spanish American War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Organizing the National Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Border Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
World War I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Growing Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
World War II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Panama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Down Under . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Wakde Sarmi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Noemfoor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Philippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Formatted: Page break before
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Batangas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
The Bicol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Sorsogon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Camalig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Mount Isarog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Off to Yokohama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Back Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
White Plan, Fire Support Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Desert Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Emergencies on the Home Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Retiring the Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
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Acknowledgements
This Pamphlet covers the one hundred year history of the Arizona Army National Guard through
it’s beginning in 1865 as the First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment through the deactivation
of the 158th Infantry in December 1967. Many significant and historical events probably
occurred that are not noted herein, for those missed, we all must take blame because of poor
records keeping, neglect of recording those events or our ignorance of history as it occurred.
The significant donors of information for this pamphlet must be recognized for the effort and
sacrifice required on their part to research, document and record in the basic contents recorded
herein. Anyone who has ever conducted research through historical records to capture the
background, time, names, places, and events will understand the amount of cussing, blood, sweat
and tears required to accomplish this task.
Special recognition to Mr. Lonnie Edward Underhill for his research and documentation of the
important period of history on the first militia unit in the illustrious lineage of the Arizona Army
National Guard. Recent Arizona historians have said little about the Arizona volunteers of the
First Volunteer Infantry Regiment mustered into service in 1865. Mr. Underhill’s thesis
attempts to make their contribution to the settling of the early Arizona Territory a matter of
record. This thesis was submitted to the History Department, University of Arizona, for his
Master of Arts degree and was based on a hitherto little or unused set of documents. These
documents were drawn from the Arizona Division of Library, Archives, and Public Records,
Arizona Historical Society, University of Arizona Library Special Collections, Arizona State
University Arizona Collection, and the National Archives. The material of the National Archives
included muster rolls, pension records, regimental papers, and pertinent military correspondence
files. The poor condition of many of these records required numerous hours of research with a
six- inch magnifying glass to decipher them.
Colonel Orville A. ( Speedy) Cochran was born on 22 October 1911 in Rifle, Colorado. Colonel
Cochran served in several staff and command assignments in the 158th Infantry and was later
transferred to the Headquarters Staff of the Arizona National Guard, both militarily and as a
State employee. Colonel Cochran served in that assignment until the time of his retirement
whereupon he was appointed as Colonel ( for Life) in the Arizona National Guard. Colonel Cochran
worked in the Adjutant General’s office as Chief Clerk in charge of the File Section prior to
mobilization in 1940. After return from World War II, Colonel Cochran was the Public
Information Officer in the Arizona National Guard Headquarters. He was an outstanding soldier
and gentleman who devoted himself to recording the previously used abbreviated History of the
Arizona National Guard and detailed History of the Arizona Artillery, 1920 – 1955.
Reproduced in its entirety herein is the book, “ The Story of the Bushmasters”, by Roy Lancaster.
In World War II, Mr. Lancaster was one of the “ Selectees” rushed from the draft boards in the
United States to their assignment with the 158th Infantry. As stated in his book, The 158th
Infantry was composed of a cross section of Arizona men; Indians of some twenty- odd tribes,
Mexicans, and native- born Americans of all national descents made up its companies when it
mobilized in 1940. After arriving in Panama in 1942 the 158th Infantry ceased to be exclusively
an Arizona outfit. It became a unit of tough young Americans from every state and every
section, from every occupation and every field. Mr. Lancaster is a member of the Bushmaster
association, and with his book out of print, has authorized the reproduction of his book twice,
once by the Arizona National Guard Historical Society and also by the Bushmaster Association on
the 50th Anniversary of their mobilization for World War II.
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Thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Robert J. Freuler ( Deceased). Colonel Freuler retired from the
Wisconsin Army National Guard where he served as a Field Artillery Battalion Commander and
senior Staff Officer. He moved to Arizona in 1986 after retiring from American Telephone and
Telegraph ( AT& T) and immediately volunteered to serve as the curator, Arizona Military Museum.
During the eight years that he served in that capacity, he spent hundreds of hours of his own
time researching the history of the early militia and Arizona Guard, covering many of those
periods where little or no information was assembled and recorded.
Particular thanks for the assistance and input furnished by former members of the 480th Field
Artillery Battalion and 180th Artillery, jokingly known as members of the Order of Ancient
Artillerymen. The capturing of written and oral history was an enjoyment, which also became a
remembrance of many good times, bad times and things forgotten. Often the deeds or activities
were embellished, especially if being recorded over a cold beer or two, but later reviewed and
edited in the interest of historical accuracy. Many occurrences recorded during these sessions,
although accurate and historical in nature, were purposely excluded in the interest of propriety
and reverence of the living.
News archives and articles available from newspapers for the time periods, plus government and
private Internet sites, provided vast amounts of information to include particular events, dates
and/ or individuals. Other contributors of information, publications or documents are recognized
in the additional reference publications listed below. Last, but not least, thanks to MSG ( Ret)
Del Taylor for time and effort required in making the files, records, Orders, Morning Reports, etc.
in the Arizona National Guard Records Center available for research and information. Del’s
appreciation of the historical significance of records under his care, plus his willingness to assist,
always made it a pleasure to visit the Records Center and review the past, while researching the
thousands of records maintained in his safekeeping.
I apologize for any areas not researched in greater detail and activities or actions not included,
but this history has become a task never completed. Every day, week or month during the past
two years would bring forth something new or an item missed that adds to the history of the
Arizona Army National Guard and therefore required research and recording. The end comes
when you just finally say, “ That’s it!” - - and hope that another interested person or organization
will update and revise this history sometime in the future.
The following publications are available for reference or additional information:
Thesis, First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment
First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment Genealogy Records
Lonnie E. Underhill
( Above publications available in Arizona Military Museum Library)
Adjutant’s General Reports, 1865 – Present ( those available)
( Arizona Military Museum Library)
Book, Story of the Bushmasters ( Out of print)
Roy Lancaster
Bushmasters, America’s Jungle Warriors ( out of Print)
Anthony Edwards
180th Field Artillery Regiment Historical Pamphlets:
Pamphlet 870- 2, White Plan, Fire Support Subsystem
Pamphlet 870- 3, Exercise Desert Strike, Colorado River War II
Pamphlet 870- 4, The Arizona Artillery
Part I, The Early Years, 1919- 1953
Pamphlet 870- 6, First Arizona Volunteer Regiment of Infantry
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Introduction
Older than our nation, the National Guard has the longest continuous history of any military
organization in the United States. Its origin traces back to the early 17th century. Early settlers
were quick to recognize their obligation to give part time personal services to the protection of
the life and property they enjoyed. From the homes and farms of individual communities, men
voluntarily joined together to form trained bands and companies. These protective groups, born
of necessity, were strictly local and spontaneous, neighbors joining hands in a common cause.
The oldest National Guard, however, was not formed in the United States. The Puerto Rican
National Guard, a part of the National Guard of the United States, claims as its ancestry the early
militia organized in 1510. It’s first commanding officer was none other than Ponce DeLeon. The
militia fought the Indian wars and with the Spanish troops repelled the attacks by the French,
English and Dutch invaders. The earliest regiments in the United States are the 182d Infantry of
Massachusetts, organized in 1634, known as the “ Old North Regiment,” and the 176th Infantry of
Virginia, organized in 1652. Lieutenant Colonel George Washington later commanded the latter
when they marched out to resist the French in the Ohio River Valley in 1754. That same
regiment during the Revolutionary War had such commanders as Colonel Patrick Henry and
Lieutenant Colonel John Marshall.
It was on 16 August 1824 that the name “ National Guard” was first applied to the State Militia.
On that day, New York units took the title of “ National Guards” in compliment to Lafayette who
was visiting the United States. Lafayette had commanded the National Guard in Paris in 1789.
To most of our citizens, the National Guard is the Militia. The Militia now includes, according to
the Arizona State Code, revised in 1951, every able- bodied citizen of Arizona, both male and
female, between the ages of 18 and 45 years. The organized militia includes the Armed Forces of
the United States, including such reserve units as the National Guard and Organized Reserve of
the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the Air Force. The unorganized militia includes the remainder
of the able bodied persons 18 to 45 years of age.
Most citizens don’t realize that the early history of Arizona can generally be considered military
history. This history would begin with the introduction of the military into this part of the world
following the entry of Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539, the march north by Francisco Vasquz de
Coronado’s Military Expedition in 1540. This expedition explored through Eastern Arizona to
the Grand Canyon and along the Colorado River, to a point just above present day Yuma.
Although he changed the course of history, Coronado died in obscurity at the age of 42. But
today, thanks to an inspired bit of diplomacy on the part of the United States, Don Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado, who searched vainly for the Seven Cities of Cibola, has a monument to his
name, The Coronado National Memorial in Southern Arizona. Continuing on with the settling of
the West, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and of course throughout all of this the Indian Wars,
which lasted until 1886 in the Arizona Territory, all have armed conflict or military significance.
The history of the subjugation of hostile Indians in the southwestern United States ( Arizona)
during the nineteenth century primarily has been fragmented and sketchy because of its
comparatively short duration. It is amazing how little today’s generation know about the early
history of Arizona and the rough and tumble Arizona Territory. Few people recognize or
understand the impact of the Indian Wars in the territory, probably because Cochise or Geronimo
didn’t kill or maim their grandparents, great grandparents or other relatives; most of today’s
Arizona residents came from somewhere else at a much later time.
Throughout the years everyone has read about or watched on TV, the Apache horror and the
Indian raids on the early settlers, the military and movie actor John Wayne. This recorded
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period in our history seems to neglect or minimize many of the significance facts regarding the
impact of the Indian Wars on the settlers and military in early Arizona. The campaigns in Arizona
were fought with minor conflicts and small battles due to the elusiveness and fighting tactics of
the Indian. This era was years of great hardship and turmoil for the early families, with little of
the recognition given to troops and their battles to defeat the hostile Apaches during their
rampage. Everyone knows about Cochise and Geronimo, but who ever heard of Bernard J. D.
Irwin or Will C. Barnes?
The first Medal of Honor awarded by the U. S Military was awarded to Bernard J. D. Irwin,
Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army, for gallantry at Apache Pass, Arizona, 13- 14 February 1861.
Surgeon Irwin was born 24 June 1830, in Ireland and entered service at New York. The Medal
was not issued until 24 January 1894. The citation for the award reads, “ Voluntarily took
command of troops and attacked and defeated the hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon
Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th Infantry, who with 60 men
was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses began
the 100- mile march, riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses
and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege.”
Local residents probably wonder why the Buttes at Papago Park are named " Barnes Butte” and
the U. S. Army Reserve Center on Oak Street is named the “ Will C. Barnes Reserve Center.”
These are named for Will Croft Barnes, Private First Class, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, who was
awarded the Medal of Honor on 8 November 1882. Private First Class Barnes was born in San
Francisco, California in 1858. Growing up in Nevada and Indianapolis, he later returned to San
Francisco. He joined the Signal Corps in 1879 and was assigned to Fort Apache as telegrapher
and operator of the meteorological station. In September 1881 Barnes assisted in the defense of
the fort from an Indian attack while Colonel Carr, Commander of Fort Apache, and most of the
garrison were gone to capture Apache medicine man Nock- aye- Klinney at the Indian village on
Cibeque Creek. The award was for heroism at Fort Apache, Arizona, 11 September 1881, citation
simply reads, “ Bravery in action.” In the spring of 1883, Barnes, by then a Sergeant, received
the medal in a retreat ceremony at Fort Apache. After receiving a medical discharge in 1883, he
began cattle ranching near St. Johns, Arizona Territory. He served in the Arizona Territorial
House of Representatives and accomplished the formation of Navajo County. A member of the U.
S. Geographical Board from 1920- 1930, Barnes spent his later years travelling and writing. His
best- known work is Arizona Place Names, published in 1935. He died in 1936 and is buried in
Arlington National Cemetery.
Leonard Wood, Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army, a name that many should still recognize. He was
awarded the Medal of Honor in the Apache campaign, summer of 1886. Citation reads:
“ Voluntarily carried dispatches through a region infested with hostile Indians, making a journey
of 70 miles in one night and walking 30 miles the next day. Also for several weeks, while in close
pursuit of Geronimo's band and constantly expecting an encounter, commanded a detachment of
Infantry, which was then without an officer, and to the command of which he was assigned upon
his own request.” General Wood made his greatest contributions to the Army and the Nation
while assigned as Chief of Staff. He strengthened the General Staff and firmly established the
Chief of Staff as the senior officer of the Army. Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri is named after
General Wood.
In addition to the award of the Medal of Honor to General Leonard Wood, Surgeon Irwin and
Private First Class Barnes, there was forty- eight other recipients of this Medal for duty during
the Indian Wars in Arizona. These included Sergeant Alchesay, Chief of the White Mountain
Apaches, Indian Scout for General Crook. Sergeant Alchesay’s citation reads, “ Gallant conduct
during campaigns and engagements with Apaches, winter of 1872- 7.”
Arizona’s Regiment of proud tradition was born 2 September 1865 as the First Arizona Volunteer
Infantry Regiment. Later as the First Arizona Infantry Regiment, it was designated as the 158th
Infantry Regiment in 1917 during World War I, reorganized and redesignated the 158th
Regimental Combat Team ( RCT) during World War II. Reactivated in the Arizona National Guard
after World War II, the 158th Infantry ceased to exist 7 December 1967, when it’s troops were
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reorganized as Military Police and other units required by the United States in revised defense
planning.
In recording this history it is easy to see where the residual strength comes from within the
guard and particularly the Arizona National Guard. As you record the name of an individual as an
officer elected to his position, appointed by the Governor, graduate of Officer Training School, or
by direct commission, you continue to come across the individual in later years as a commander,
senior staff officer, the Adjutant General or even Governor. You might first notice their names
before or during the Spanish American War, Mexican Border Service, World War I or World War II
and still later they continue as an active member for many years after this initial service. Even
today you will notice many of their names on street signs throughout valley communities. The
Arizona National Guard built on those individuals’ experience and knowledge. Whether the
individual was strong, mediocre or weak, their tenure of service provided the ability to build this
great organization on their collective experience.
John L. Johnson
Colonel, AUS Retired
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The Civil War
When citizens of the United States first entered the Southwest, the Apaches were at first inclined
to consider them as allies against their bitter enemies, the Mexicans. Even though in the 1830s
there had already been clashes with American " scalp hunters", e. g., James Johnson and James
" Don Santiago" Kirker, those Americans were basically operating under authority of the Mexican
flag, and so the Apaches considered such individuals as non- representative of the United States.
Then, of course, came the Mexican War, 1846- 1848. Again, it appeared that the " Americans"
could be Apache allies in their struggle against Mexico.
It wasn't until the 1850s that the United States finally realized that the Apaches were going to
cause serious problems. Apaches continued to raid Mexico, and Mexico consequently put
pressure on the U. S. to cease the raids. Settlers in New Mexico and Arizona, Mexican and
American alike, became particularly insistent that Apache raiding stop. In Arizona by 1857 the
United States finally decided to garrison a post just north of the Sonoran border, near modern-day
Patagonia, Arizona,-- Fort Buchanan. Because the outpost was isolated and difficult to
maintain, it was basically ineffective in stopping raids and was abandoned at the outset of the
Civil War.
On 28 February 1862, Captain Sherod Hunter’s 100- man company of Arizona Rangers, from the
Confederate Army of Texas Volunteers, occupied Tucson. The people of Tucson, sick of raids by
desperados, Mexican bandits and Apaches, received his men cordially and without incident,
though they failed to display any particular devotion to the strange banner that the rebels
carried. Union sympathizers were given the choice of swearing allegiance to the Confederate
States or leaving the territory. Hunter took what supplies he needed at Tucson then proceeded
to the Pima Villages where he arrested a miller named Ammi White and took 1,500 sacks of
wheat. He gave the wheat to the Indians since he didn’t have any wagons to haul it away.
While at the Pima villages Hunter also captured Captain William McCleave and nine men who
were scouting ahead of the California Volunteer Union Army Column. Captain William P.
Calloway and troops under him were sent to rescue Captain McCleave but arrived too late. On
the way, Captain Calloway’s troops came across Confederates destroying hay at Stanwix Station
about 80 miles east of Yuma. Shots were exchanged and a California soldier, Private William
Semmilrogge, was wounded before the rebels retreated. This encounter at Stanwix Station was
not a battle of the size of Gettysburg or Bull Run, but it was the western- most skirmish between
soldiers during the Civil War. From the Pima Villages, Captain Calloway sent two lieutenants
with cavalrymen to capture Confederates still in the area.
At Picacho Pass, about 45 miles northwest of Tucson, Captain Hunter left Sergeant Henry Holmes
in command of nine privates. The mission of these ten men was to warn Captain Hunter of any
attempt by the Union troops to move on Tucson. On 15 April 1862, the two forces met. A fierce
battle was fought that lasted only a few minutes. Lieutenant James Barrett and two Union
privates were killed and three others wounded. No Confederates were killed but two were
wounded and three captured. The remaining Confederates escaped to Tucson. The California
Column moved into Tucson on 20 May 1862 without a shot being fired. Captain Hunter had
departed two weeks earlier, realizing that his small force was no match for the 1800- man
California Column.
The biggest battle of the Civil War in Arizona was fought on 15 July 1862; twenty miles south of
present day Wilcox at Apache Pass. Apaches led by Mangas Coloradas and Cochise ambushed the
second detachment of 126 California Volunteers. As the soldiers approached a spring of water,
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the Indians fired on them from behind the rocks along the rim of the canyon. The “ Battle of
Apache Pass” was a victory for the troops since they lost only two killed and three wounded.
Estimates of Apache losses vary from 10 to 68. The California Column of Volunteers established
Fort Bowie on its way to New Mexico after a detachment was sent to protect the spring at Puerto
de Dado. This is the fort where field artillery was first used against the Apache at the Battle of
Apache pass in June of 1862. After stubborn resistance, bursting howitzer shells finally dislodged
the Apache. It became the focal point of operations against Geronimo and the Apache. From
1867- 1886 there were constant skirmishes with the Apache renegades Victorio, Nana, Juh,
Geronimo, Loco and Natchez.
One of the earliest large engagements of U. S. troops against Apaches occurred in May 1863. In
that month Lieutenant Thomas T. Tidball from Fort Lowell in Tucson, and a prominent Mexican
citizen of Tucson, Jesús María Elías, led a force that killed fifty Apache warriors on Aravaipa
Creek. Still another important battle took place in January 1864 between Yavapais and Apaches
under a leader known as Paramucka. This was the infamous engagement at " Bloody Tanks." Some
historians think it happened near what is now the town of Miami, Arizona, while others feel it
took place in Fish Creek Canyon in the Superstitions.
King Woolsey, leader of an American expedition of civilians out of Prescott, requested a meeting
with Indian leaders. Six responded and came out the mountains to talk. After all were seated,
Woolsey signalled his men to kill every Indian possible. So many Indians were killed that the
stream where the engagement took place ran red with the blood of those who died-- thus the
name " Bloody Tanks." It was a horrifying precursor of what was to come.
The Arizona Territory was a remote land in 1864. The principal population centers were in
Tucson and in the Santa Cruz Valley, along the Colorado north of Yuma, and in the newly opened
gold fields in the Prescott vicinity. All three regions owed their continued existence to mining
activity. Agricultural activity included supplying cattle, sheep and basic foods to meet local
need of the miners and soldiers.
The California Volunteers had occupied Arizona in 1862. Their mission had been to retake the
forts in Arizona and New Mexico, drive out Confederate forces and reopen the southern mail
route, which had been abandoned at the outbreak of the Civil War. As prospectors and settlers
were attracted to Arizona by recent gold strikes, hostile Indians pounced on them at every turn.
The California Volunteers were thinly spread and unable to provide protection along the major
wagon routes, let alone near the new mining camps. The need for additional military forces
became apparent soon after creation of the new territory. While still in the East, Governor John
A. Gurley and Chief Justice John N. Goodwin took steps to control the Indian menace in Arizona.
In early March of 1863, Gurley and Goodwin petitioned President Abraham Lincoln for authority
to raise two volunteer regiments; one of infantry and one of mounted riflemen, in their home
states of Ohio and Maine, respectively, for service in Arizona.
Governor Gurley and Chief Justice Goodwin suggested raising a third regiment from California.
At the expiration of the enlistment of these volunteers, which would be for three years or, the
end of the Civil War, the soldiers could be discharged in Arizona with the hope that they might
settle there. In this way within a few years, the territory would have sufficient population to
protect itself without special assistance from the Federal government. The territorial leaders
thought this military force in Arizona would provide security for emigrants’ enroute to the
pacific coast and strengthen military forces already stationed there. Also, a strong force would
help establish law and order and promote the development of Arizona’s mineral wealth. General
Samuel P. Heintzelman endorsed Gurley and Goodwin’s petition to Lincoln. Heintzelman, an
Army officer stationed in Washington, D. C., who had served at Fort Yuma, California, agreed with
the Arizona officials that 3,000 soldiers would be necessary to repel hostile Indian attacks in the
new territory. He knew a good deal about mining in Arizona. Heintzelman stated that three
years earlier several mining companies had been successfully operating in Arizona, but the
Apaches had by constant “ theft, murder and robbery compelled them to abandon the country
with the loss of all their machinery, improvements and property.”
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The discovery of gold in central Arizona in the spring of 1863 called attention to the new
territory. As news of the discovery spread through the Southwest, prospectors rushed to the new
diggings. As they fanned out in all directions, they encountered hostile Indians. In October of
1863, General James H. Carleton, commanding the Military Department of New Mexico,
established the Military District of Northern Arizona. This district contained all of the area
north of the Gila River and east of the Colorado River, except the area occupied by Fort Mohave.
In December he sent California volunteers to establish Fort Whipple near the strike, but they
were unfamiliar with the habits of the Apaches and failed to protect the growing population of
miners and prospectors. Fort Whipple was established in November 1863 one- mile northeast of
Prescott in the Chino Valley. Cavalry and Infantry soldiers stationed there participated in many
Indian engagements. The Whipple Barracks became the Headquarters for the Military
Department of Arizona on April 15, 1870. The post was General George Crook’s District of
Arizona headquarters in 1882. Centrally located in the Territory, the fort had a major influence
on all Indian affairs in the region.
The Indian Menace
Status as a territory began with the signature of President Abraham Lincoln on the Congressional
Act of 24 February 1863. Governor John N. Goodwin and several of the Arizona territorial office
holders arrived at Fort Whipple on 22 January 1864. Soldiers escorting Goodwin had killed an
Indian enroute to the new territory. This event provided Goodwin with first- hand knowledge of
the dangers of the Apache menace which Americans living in Arizona had begun describing as the
most pressing obstacle in their efforts to settle the new territory. Arizona territorial officials
reached the Whipple vicinity in January of 1864. The official party had traveled west via Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas and Santa Fe, where a detachment of New Mexico and Missouri Volunteers
under Lieutenant Colonel Jose F. Chaves joined them. On his arrival, Goodwin explored for a site
to locate the capital. By summer he had located a capital at Prescott, near Whipple, and ordered
a census be taken. He learned that Arizona had a population of 4,573 persons, excluding Indians,
living chiefly in three regions. The Tucson Area, comprising the land south of the Gila River,
contained 2,377 persons; the La Paz and Colorado River area contained 1,157 persons; and the
Prescott area, comprising the remainder of the territory, contained 1,039 persons. Miners and
prospectors were active in southern Arizona, along the Colorado River between La Paz and Fort
Mohave, and in central Arizona around Fort Whipple.
Major L. A. Armistead originally established Fort Mohave as Camp Colorado on April 19, 1859.
Lieutenant Edward Beale recommended that they station the post on the east bank of the
Colorado River near the head of the Mojave Valley. The Fort was established to provide a shelter
for emigrants to California and a base for operations against the Mojave Indians. The Post was
renamed Fort Mohave on April 28, 1859, abandoned on May 28, 1861 by order of Brigadier
General Edwin V. Sumner for fear of the Confederate forces in the area. The buildings were
burned down. May 19, 1863, the post was re- garrisoned and was assigned to protect the travelers
along the Mojave and Prescott road and to cultivate friendly relations with the Indians; it is now
part of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation.
Within six months after locating the territorial capital at Prescott, Governor Goodwin turned his
attention to the larger problems of providing adequate protection for settlers and miners
throughout the territory. The California Volunteers had located several posts in Arizona in 1862,
but they were thinly spread and could not control the serious threat on life and property by
hostile Indians. The need for additional military forces had developed in May of 1863 with the
discovery of gold in central Arizona.
Governor Goodwin and other territorial officials made repeated requests for increased Federal
protection, but assistance came slowly. Ranchers in the vicinity of Prescott were particularly
vulnerable to Apache raids the previous December; Indians had stolen a large number of cattle
near Canon Springs, which were destined, for sale to miners. Two months later, fifty Pinal
Apache raided the Agua Fria Ranch, owned by King S. Woolsey. The Indians hit the ranch at mid-day
and drove off thirty head of cattle. They took all the animals except a yoke of oxen hitched
to a plow and killed one or two others at the ranch. Woolsey was not home at the time.
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Reporting the incident, the Prescott Weekly Arizona Miner, in early March of 1864, stated that
Woolsey probably would organize a company “ to hunt and punish the thieves . . . he is one of our
most daring and skillful Indian fighters, and believes fully ‘ in the extermination policy.’” Indian
attacks spread. Several days after the attack on the Agua Fria Ranch, they surprised miners in
Randall’s District on the Hasssayampa River south of Prescott. They killed five Mexicans and
three Americans and drove about twenty miners from their claims. When the miners reported
this attack to Secretary of the Territory Richard C. McCormick, he requested the commander at
Fort Whipple to detach twenty California Volunteers to patrol briefly in Randall’s District in case
the Indians returned.
When the volunteers prepared to return to Whipple, more than 100 miners signed a petition
requesting a permanent military force be assigned to Randall’s District. The District, they said,
lay in an area rich in mineral wealth and agriculture in which they had expended a great deal of
labor and money in opening claims and starting farms. The area suffered Indian attacks because
of its isolation from other settlements. The petitioners asked Governor Goodwin to station
permanently a small force of twenty to thirty soldiers in Randall’s District as a base of operations
in the neighborhood. In this manner, the miners could complete work on their claims and
hopefully organize to defend themselves against the Indians. The depredations continued. A
petition came from the Lynx Creek District. The citizens felt they were in constant danger from
Indian attack and demanded that immediate measures be taken to ensure their safety. They
requested Goodwin to take steps to keep open their lines of communication and supply, and to
take steps to “ subdue the Indians and render the country safe and habitable.” A few days later,
Indians overran the Sheldon Ranch twenty- five miles south of Prescott, drove off a dozen cattle
and killed a herder, a Mr. Cosgrove. Twenty- five soldiers went to the ranch, but they failed to
locate the Indians or the cattle. The commander at Fort Whipple furnished supplies for a group
of soldiers to join the search, but the Indians had disappeared with all the cattle.
In late March of 1864, Governor Goodwin announced his determination to make Arizona safe and
promised to subdue the “ ruthless barbarians, whatever it may cost.” He appointed King Woolsey
as his military aide, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and dispatched him on an expedition
with nearly 100 men, including twenty who led the supply train, looking for hostile Indians. The
men received rations and supplies at Fort Whipple, and enlisted a large number of Maricopa
Indians to accompany them. The Maricopa were eager to strike the Pinal Apaches “ a blow which
will deter them from farther [ sic] depredations in this vicinity.” Wooley’s expedition left his
Agua Fria Ranch on the night of March 31 and stayed in the field until April 17. In two fights
with Apaches, the party killed thirty and wounded fourteen Indians.
In June 1864, Woolsey again left Prescott with volunteers to scout Apache Indian Territory. Near
the end of June he discovered a creek whose headwaters were in the Pinal Mountains. He
therefore named the creek, " Pinal Creek." He made his main camp there and called it
" Wheatfields," as Apache Indians raised crops there along the banks of Pinal Creek. The area is
still called Wheatfields today. Meanwhile, Colonel Edwin Rigg at Fort Goodwin, about 60 miles to
the east, detailed Major Thomas Blakeney to meet Woolsey at Wheatfields. When Blakeney
arrived at what is now Six Shooter Canyon, he found a 14- year- old Apache boy who said he
wished to give up his life as an Indian, as it was too hard. Blakeney took the boy, and, of course,
his relatives came looking for him two days later. Major Blakeney refused to give the boy up.
The next day, this same boy went out into the fields at Wheatfields to look for food. The boy was
taken back by his people and this " kidnapping" outraged Blakeney. On that same day Woolsey
arrived back again at Wheatfields from an expedition to Salt River Canyon. Major Blakeney and
Woolsey's men were ordered to search out any male Apaches they could and to kill them. They
then destroyed the Apache fields. Great bitterness arose among the Apaches as a result of this
fiasco, and even Colonel Rigg was disgusted by the affair. He knew that there could no longer be
any prospect of peace.
Arizona territorial officials finally convinced the War Department that additional troops were
needed in Arizona to fight the Apaches. On February 10, 1864, Governor Goodwin had written
President Lincoln a letter expressing concern over the Indian situation. The success of the new
territory depended heavily upon curbing hostile Indian activity particularly in the mining and
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ranching regions, he said. Escorts were needed to transport the mail and guard parties exploring
the territory. The richest and most extensive mineral regions seemed to be to the east and
south of Prescott and on the San Francisco and Salt Rivers. Indian attacks on prospecting
parties and travelers had spread to the south, and herders everywhere guarded their livestock
with utmost vigilance. In conclusion, Goodwin requested permission to organize a regiment from
within the territory to replace the California Volunteers whose enlistments would end between
August and September of that year. The Governor suggested native Arizonans who were familiar
with the country and Apache warfare. He thought native Arizonans would be far more efficient
than soldiers recruited elsewhere.
The territorial legislature also drafted a memorial to the United States Congress; the memorial
requested an appropriation of $ 250,000 to promote a war against the Apaches. The legislature
felt the depredations of the Apaches were the “ only barrier to a speedy settlement” of the
territory. The workers of Governor Goodwin asked several congressional and military leaders for
letters endorsing his request. Those contacted included Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton,
General Robert C. Schenck, Chairman of the House Military Committee, Major General Henry W.
Halleck, General- in- Chief of the Army, and General Carleton, commanding the Department of
New Mexico. In his endorsement, General Carleton supported the Governor’s request to raise
local troops, but doubted that “ an entire volunteer regiment could be raised.” Instead, Carleton
suggested that more troops were needed in Arizona, but stated emphatically: “ Until the Navajo
War is off my hands, ( soldiers) cannot be sent ( from New Mexico).” General Carleton’s
endorsement of Governor Goodwin’s request reached the War Department and the office of
Provost Marshal General James B. Fry on April 11. On April 16, 1864, the War Department
approved Goodwin’s request to raise troops in Arizona. General Fry authorized the raising of one
regiment of volunteer infantry in the Arizona Territory to serve for three years or for the
duration of the Civil War. The Department of the Pacific, rather than the Department of New
Mexico, which General Carleton had preferred, would handle the recruitment, organization and
muster of the regiment. General- in- Chief Halleck concurred in General Fry’s action. However,
the War Department held up the authorization until it had shifted military jurisdiction of Arizona
from General Carleton to the Department of the Pacific.
Several weeks before the War Department approved the Arizona regiment, Governor Goodwin had
written Secretary of State William H. Seward requesting a ninety- day leave to visit the new
commander of the Department of the Pacific in San Francisco. He had learned from the
California officers in Arizona that ten new volunteer regiments were being organized in California
and that one regiment might be sent to Arizona. Goodwin hoped that any new troops sent to the
territory might be commanded and staffed with officers who had lived in Arizona and were
acquainted with Indian warfare. Goodwin’s request was denied and the matter of an Arizona
volunteer regiment was shelved for the time being.
When the new Arizona legislature met in the fall of 1864, it passed two Acts to curb the Indian
depredations. On November 7, Governor Goodwin signed “ An Act Authorizing a Loan on the
Faith and Credit of the Territory to Inaugurate and Pay the Expenses of a Campaign against the
Apache Indians.” By this Act the legislature would seek to raise $ 100,000 in Indian War Bonds,
to be repaid on January 1, 1885. The legislator’s would try to negotiate the loan at eight per
cent in gold at par value and at ten per cent annual interest. The bonds would be issued in
amounts of $ 50, $ 100, $ 250, and $ 1,000. A board of territorial commissioners empowered to
arrange for the sale of the bonds, included Governor Goodwin and legislators King S. Woolsey and
John G. Capron. The legislature also approved “ An Act Authorizing the Raising of Rangers.” By
this Act, signed on November 9, Governor Goodwin could raise six companies, not to exceed 600
men, for Indian service. These so- called rangers were to be under the direct command of the
territorial governor. Expenses incurred on Indian campaigns would be paid from monies received
from the sale of the territorial bonds.
The working of the mines, the establishment of farms, and the development of the territory
depended upon the subjugation of the “ barbarous foe so long a terror of the settlers” of Arizona.
The board of territorial commissioners would use this money to conduct the war upon the
Apaches then in progress. The United States Congress did not grant this request. Arizona
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officials also learned that a territorial government could not obligate itself through local bonds to
support a militia, and the act was repealed. No bonds were sold.
The Indian menace continued unabated. Prospectors, farmers, ranchers, and territorial officials
all sensed the need to enlarge the military force in Arizona. But, the Federal government was
deeply committed to fighting the Civil War and lines of communication between Arizona and
Washington were extremely long and slow.
Raising the Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Approval to raise a regiment of Arizona Volunteers came from the War Department in the spring
of 1865. The recruitment of troops in Arizona had been delayed from April of 1864 to February
of the next year while the Army reorganized its military departments in the West. On receiving
proper authority from Washington, Arizona Governor Goodwin set into motion his plan for
raising a regiment of five companies of native soldiers. Between September 2 and November 3,
1865, Federal mustering officers swore into service for one- year, approximately 350 men from
the local Mexican, Pima and Maricopa populations. The soldiers were assigned to permanent duty
soon after they were mustered.
In reorganizing the military department in the West, the War Department did transfer the
Arizona Territory from the Department of New Mexico to the Military Division of the Pacific. The
Pacific Division included the Department of the Columbia and the Department of California, the
latter commanded by Major General Irvin McDowell. The Department of California now included
the Military District of Arizona. In February of 1865, Provost Marshal General Fry in
Washington, D. C. authorized McDowell to raise a regiment of volunteer infantry in Arizona for
service there. Recruits could enlist for periods of one to three years. On February 25, General
McDowell appointed Brigadier General John S. Mason to command the new District of Arizona.
In early May of 1865, while conferring in Los Angeles with Generals Mason and McDowell,
Governor Goodwin learned that Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton had suspended all military
recruiting, anticipating the end of the Civil War. On May 3, Goodwin and Mason sent a telegram
to the War Department asking if the suspension affected Arizona. Secretary of War Stanton
replied that the order exempted the Arizona regiment. The unit could be mustered into Federal
service by July of that year, or as soon as the volunteer companies comprised between eighty
and ninety- seven enlisted men and three officers. On learning the good news, Goodwin left for
Arizona in late May with plans to call up the regiment.
At Prescott, The Governor moved quickly with the recruiting. He appointed William H. Garvin, of
Prescott, as Adjutant General of the Arizona Volunteers, charging him with handling all official
correspondence involving the new regiment. He then selected men who were well- known in the
territory to serve as recruiting officers for six companies designated as A, B, C, D, E, and F.
Recruiting for Company A would occur in Yavapai, Mohave, and northern Gila Valley and central
Arizona. Companies B and C would come from the Gila Valley and Central Arizona. Recruiters
would seek men for Company D from the Tucson area of Pima County. Companies E and F would
be raised in southern Pima County along the Santa Cruz River and in the mining regions to the
east of Tubac.
Goodwin asked Robert Postle, a farmer living near Fort Whipple to raise Company A within
ninety days in Yavapai, Mohave and Yuma counties. Postle would serve, as a second lieutenant
during the recruitment period and later would command the company with the rank of captain.
Postle did not relish his task and on July 29, after having recruited only a few men, he resigned.
Primitivo Cervantes, a miner from Prescott, assumed his duties. Cervantes enlisted thirty- five
men from the Fort Whipple vicinity. Cervantes sent the men to First Lieutenant Charles Curtis,
Company D, Fifth United States Infantry, at Whipple to await induction into Federal service.
Twenty- five of the thirty- five men were Mexican born; many were from the Mexican State of
Sonora, nine were from Hermosillo, the capital city. The remaining seven men indicated their
origins as Germany, Ireland, England, Sweden, California and Illinois.
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Thomas Ewing, a teamster at the Pima Villages, agreed to recruit Maricopa Indians from that
vicinity to fill Company B. Ninety- seven Maricopas from the area around Maricopa Wells
volunteered for duty. Six more later joined after the Maricopas had been serving at the newly
established Fort McDowell. All 103 Indians gave their birthplace as Maricopa Wells. Governor
Goodwin named John D. Walker, who also resided at the Pima Villages, to recruit Pima Indians
for Company C. Walker had been a sergeant in the California Volunteers and had seen service in
Arizona. Walker enlisted ninety- four Pimas from the Pima Villages.
On June 13, Governor Goodwin authorized James Lee, flour and saw mill operator at Tucson, to
recruit men from Pima County for Company D. Because Lee experienced great difficulty in
obtaining rations from the Army to subsist the few men he had recruited, he disbanded them and
returned to his mill. Goodwin named no replacement for Lee and Company D was never
organized.
Hiram S. Washburn, a trader living in the Patagonia mining region in southern Pima County,
agreed to raise Company E at Tubac. From the few records written to or by Washburn, he began
work on June 24 in the Santa Cruz Valley. The next month, he reported to Goodwin that he
expected to have 100 men at Tubac by mid- August ready for induction. Washburn proudly
predicted his recruits would be of the “ first order in the art of Apache hunting”. Washburn also
selected officers for Company E. On July 6, he appointed Manuel Gallegos, formerly of New
Mexico, as second lieutenant and on August 14, Oscar F. Hutton, a mining superintendent at the
Mowry Mine, as first lieutenant. Lieutenant Gallegos had gained considerable experience fighting
Apaches and familiarity with many Apache haunts in southeastern Arizona. In addition to
Spanish, he spoke the Apache dialect. Washburn reported to Governor Goodwin that Lieutenant
Gallegos had earned the complete confidence of the recruits, two of whom were his own sons.
Washburn thought recruiting men of Mexican descent for Apache service would promote amity
and mutual confidence between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican recruits were in
Washburn’s opinion equal, if not superior, to any others he knew for Apache campaigning.
Mexicans never before had had such an opportunity to avenge themselves on the Apaches. In
July, Lieutenant Gallegos began recruiting men for Company E. He recruited at least twenty- six
of his recruits in Bacuachi, Sonora. By August 21 the company had ninety- six men. On
September 1, Washburn wrote inquiring why a mustering officer from San Francisco had not
arrived to induct his men into Federal service.
As was the case at Fort Whipple, Washburn temporarily sent his recruits to the commander of a
local unit. For Company E, this was Second Lieutenant William L. Innes, Seventh Infantry,
California Volunteers, stationed at Tubac. At Tubac, the men erected their own quarters, but the
lack of adequate shelter and blankets caused most of them to develop fevers and other illnesses.
On August 23, Washburn moved his recruits to Fort Mason, near Calabasas, fifteen miles south
on the Santa Cruz River. When the United States took possession of the territory south of the
Gila River in 1853 as a result of the Gadsden Purchase, there was a Mexican fort near Calabasas.
In June 1856 Dragoons under Major Enoch Steen marched from Tucson and occupied the old
fort. Within a few months these troops were removed to Fort Buchanan. It was formally
occupied by U. S. troops a second time with Union troops recruited near Santa Barbara,
California, led by Captain Thomas Young. This First Battalion of Native Cavalry moved into the
old fort on August 21, 1865, and named it Fort Mason for General John S. Mason of the
California Volunteers, Military Commander of the District of Arizona, 1865- 1866. These men
had been stationed at Tubac, but the drenching rains “ soon engendered fevers” and the move was
made to Fort Mason. The name was changed to Camp McKee on September 6, 1866. Here the
men again constructed shelters, and ten to twenty recruits were detailed daily to the
commanding officer to prepare adobe bricks for the post headquarters. Sickness spread and
Washburn often had difficulty in filling his work quotas. Continued illness among the soldiers
caused the camp to be abandoned on October 1, 1866, when the troops were shifted to old Fort
Buchanan.
Washburn’s recruits continued to suffer from a lack of clothing, from inadequate shelter and
from insufficient food. Because the Federal government had made no allowances for recruiting,
16
he used his own personal credit to make purchases at Tubac. He was never reimbursed for
expenses incurred during July and August for his men. The volunteers had no cooking utensils
and but half a dozen mess pans. The company had only four axes and two spades with which to
construct shelters for protection from the frequent rainstorms. Arms and ammunition were
promised, but none had arrived. Washburn dramatically described his men as “ destitute” in his
letters to Governor Goodwin. Many fell sick or succumbed to illness by “ eating crude fruit and
sleeping on the wet ground without blankets.” During late August, he informed Goodwin that he
had spent fifty dollars for food and medicine that “ ought to have been furnished . . . from the
hospital, and for which as yet no redress is promised.” The men received no medical attention
unless they were confined to the hospital, and only two men had been entitled to hospital care at
Tubac. More than seventy men were doctoring themselves with herbs and roots, leaving camp
duty to be performed by “ the wellest ( sic) of the sick.” Although Company E received a small
amount of clothing in late October, Washburn noted that the sickly and ragged condition of the
men made them the “ laughing stock of their countrymen far and near.” A total of ninety- seven
men enlisted in Company E at Tubac and at Fort Mason. Only three recruits were from the
United States. The remainder were born in Sonora: twenty- two came from Arispe, sixteen from
Bacauchi and eight from Fronteras.
With Company E filled, Washburn turned to raising men for Company F from the mining region
east of Tubac. Although the recruiting proceeded more slowly than he anticipated, he stated
confidently to Governor Goodwin that he could fill the company before the Federal mustering
officer reached southern Arizona. He recommended as second lieutenant for the new company
one Robert Medina, whom he regarded as an “ old experienced Apache fighter,” but Medina
decided not to serve in Company F. Washburn turned over thirty- two recruits for Company F to
Lieutenant Innes at Tubac. Only one man was from the United States. The others were born in
Sonora, principally in the cities of Magdelena, Hermosillo, Santa Cruz, Oriz and Gyamas.
In the early fall of 1865, Federal induction of the Arizona Volunteers began. First Lieutenant
William W. Tompkins, Third Infantry, mustered the first volunteers at Maricopa Wells. On
September 2, Tompkins mustered ninety- four Maricopas into Company B. Lieutenant Innes
added two men to the company on December 18 and First Lieutenant Samuel L. Barr, Fifth
Infantry, who served as assistant commissary of musters for the Arizona Territory, mustered
seven more on May 16, 1866. The total number mustered into Company B eventually was 103
enlisted men. At full strength, Company B consisted of five sergeants, eight corporals, eighty-four
privates and six of unknown rank that were probably privates. Governor Goodwin appointed
Thomas Ewing as first lieutenant and Charles Riedt as second lieutenant of Company B. Ewing,
age twenty- eight, and Riedt, age forty, were mustered into federal service on September 2. Six
days later, Lieutenant Colonel Clarence E. Bennett, First Cavalry, California Volunteers,
commanding at Fort McDowell, recommended that Riedt be promoted to the rank of captain in
Company B. Lieutenant Riedt spoke the language of the Maricopas fluently and Bennett
considered him to be a competent and efficient officer. For all intents and purposes, lieutenant
Ewing commanded the company from the beginning. However, on November 11, Juan
Chevereah, Chief of the Maricopas, was appointed captain of Company B, but he assumed non-military
duties. On August 8, 1866, Ewing was officially named to command Company B, a
position that he had occupied since his induction into Federal service.
Lieutenant Tompkins also inducted eighty- nine men, Pima Indians, into Company C on
September 2. On May 14, 1866, at Sacaton, Lieutenant Barr added five men. Company C
eventually included ninety- four enlisted men and contained five sergeants, eight corporals and
eighty- one privates. Officers in Company C included Captain J. Ross Browne, age forty, an
Indian agency inspector from California and writer who was appointed on December 21, 1865.
Browne did not serve with the Arizona Volunteers. He reported to Major Robert S. Williamson.
Chief Engineer, Department of California, San Francisco, for topographical assignment. Captain
Browne was discharged from service on April 1, 1866. Other officers included First Lieutenant
John D. Walker, age twenty- seven, and Second Lieutenant William A. Hancock, age thirty- four.
John N. Coster, age thirty, formerly a first lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry, California
Volunteers, and an aide- de- camp to Major General McDowell, was captain of the company from
17
April 1 to June 13, 1866, but he did not serve with the company either. First Lieutenant John
Walker filled the position of captain of the company on June 20. On June 21, Lieutenant
Hancock became first lieutenant, and Sergeant Antonio Azul, age thirty and chief of the Pimas,
assumed the position of second lieutenant on August 1. From the date of his muster into
service, Walker had commanded the company. Upon being inducted into service, Companies B
and C reported to Colonel Bennett, commanding at Fort McDowell. Bennett sent uniforms to the
volunteers at Maricopa Wells. Each Indian soldier received a blue blouse trimmed in red for the
Maricopas and blue for the Pimas, one pair of blue pants, one pair of shoes and one yard of
flannel for a headdress. Although both Pimas and Maricopas furnished their own horses, they
received infantry pay and fed their horses at their own expense.
On October 7, 1865, at Fort Whipple, Lieutenant Tompkins mustered Company A into Federal
Service. Second Lieutenant Cervantes commanded this company, containing Anglos and twenty-nine
Mexicans from Prescott. No other officers were commissioned in Company A. Lieutenant
Cervantes reached a site on the Clear Fork of the Verde with Company A in late October. This
outpost, called Camp Lincoln, also on the Verde River fifty miles east of Prescott, had been
established to protect neighboring farmers on the Verde from Apache depredations. Cervantes
moved the site of the outpost one mile north of the Verde River and Beaver Creek Junction in
Yavapai County. The camp was actively employed in offensive operations against the Apaches.
During the next two months Cervantes sent many scouting expeditions into the nearby
mountains.
Early in November, mustering officers arrived in southern Arizona to induct Companies E and F
into Federal service. Lieutenant Tompkins mustered ninety- seven enlisted men into Company E
on November 2, at Calabasas, near Fort Mason. Later on June 15, 1866, at skull Valley
southwest of Fort Whipple, Lieutenant Barr added two more men to the unit. Company E
contained a bugler, five sergeants, eight corporals, and eighty- five privates. Company officers
included Captain Hiram S. Washburn, age forty- five, First Lieutenant John M. Ver Mehr, age
twenty- two, and Second Lieutenant Manuel Gallegos, age forty- five. Ver Mehr, who had come to
Arizona from California in 1860, served as aide to General Mason and never joined Company E at
Camp Lincoln. He resigned his commission on June 27, 1866. Lieutenant Tompkins inducted
thirty- two men into Company F on November 3 at Calabasas. The company consisted of one
sergeant, three corporals, and twenty- eight privates. Second Lieutenant Oscar F. Hutton, the
commander, continued recruiting men for the company with the goal of reaching a complement
of at least eighty men.
On December 4, 1865, Captain Washburn received orders to move Companies E and F from Fort
Mason to Fort Whipple. That night six men deserted. The next morning, the company started
north with nearly a third of its number on the sick list. Baggage and provisions were carried in
wagons, but the column set out with the sick straggling along as best they could. The soldiers
reached Tucson on December 8, Maricopa Wells on December 14, Wickenburg on December 22,
and Fort Whipple on December 29, a journey of 183 miles in twenty- five days. Most of the
soldiers had improved in health, but two died enroute to Fort Whipple. The men suffered from
the bitter cold weather. As there were no quarters available for them when they reached Fort
Whipple, they had to construct makeshift shelters. Washburn described the men as “ truly
pitiable.”
By late December of 1865, the Arizona Volunteers were either enroute to or already at their duty
stations. The newly inducted volunteers had endured many hardships during the muster period
and during the march to their designated posts. Companies B and C at Maricopa Wells were the
first assigned to duty. On September 4, 1865, Company C, Pimas, left Maricopa Wells with
Colonel Bennett’s command of California Volunteers to establish a fort on the Verde River.
Bennett’s troops cleared a wagon road from Maricopa Wells to the site selected for the new post.
Company B, Maricopas, arrived at the site a few days later. Both companies helped construct
Fort McDowell to serve as a buffer against Apache raids on farms along the Verde and Salt Rivers.
The California Volunteers originally established Fort McDowell on September 7, 1865 on the west
bank of the Rio Verde seven miles above the junction of the Verde with the Salt River. It was
created to combat the local Indians of the surrounding mountains and was intended to be one of
18
the most solidly built posts in the Territory, but rains washed it away. The Camp was first called
Campo Verde and is also erroneously indicated as Fort Badger. It was renamed Camp McDowell
after Major General Irwin McDowell. The Fort Commanded a number of the more important trails
that served the Apache of central Arizona and it was a place of embarkation for many expeditions
to the east against the Tonto Apache. The Maricopas and Pimas subsequently campaigned
against Apaches north and east of McDowell.
On January 2, 1866, Captain Washburn received orders to move Company E to Camp Lincoln,
and take charge of the camp. On arriving at the second Camp Lincoln on January 16, 1866,
Washburn directed Company A and Company E to build brush shelters and to prepare for
scouting into the surrounding area to search for Apache camps. The trip from Prescott had
taken longer than expected because Washburn’s men had to move heavy loads of equipment and
supplies with broken down mules over a mountain trail. Companies A and E scouted the
mountains in all directions form Camp Lincoln. The Camp was renamed Camp Verde on
November 23, 1868. The post was moved in 1871 to higher ground a mile south to improve the
poor condition of the camp and was renamed Fort Verde on April 5, 1879.
From Whipple, Lieutenant Hutton moved Company F to an outpost in Skull Valley near Date
Creek, southwest of the fort. Camp McPherson would be established here on January 23, 1867.
It was created to protect travelers on the road from La Paz to Prescott. The volunteers in
Company F occasionally scouted for Apaches, but they usually escorted wagon trains along the
Prescott- LaPaz road. The post was moved north 25 miles and renamed Camp Skull Valley in
March of 1867. On May 11, 1867, the camp was returned to its original location and renamed
Camp Date Creek. Of the thirty men that had left southern Arizona, only eleven were well
enough for duty. Nearly half of the men had no shoes, and had wrapped old rags around their
feet. Many of them had not a “ shirt on their body nor any drawers at all,” because they had
received no clothing since being in service. Of the number sick, eight or ten were considered in
serious condition, suffering from ague, fever, and “ the sickening condition of their feet and legs.”
Nearly all had severe coughs. The men knew little about their firearms, which they had received
the day before they left southern Arizona.
Even before the companies were inducted, problems had beset the Arizona Volunteers. As early
as September of 1865, General Mason, commanding the District of Arizona, received an order
directing him to suspend recruiting as the War Department wished to reduce the number of
recruits brought into Federal service. Mason did not act on the order immediately. Then in
early October, Adjutant General Edward D. Townsend amended the order, stating that Lieutenant
General Ulysses S. Grant had authorized the Arizona Companies already mustered into service to
be retained until further orders, but “ prohibited the muster of any more.” On November 30, the
mustering officer at Fort Mason finally received an order from General Mason suspending further
recruiting. Colonel Charles W. Lewis, the post commander, halted the muster for Company F,
keeping only those inducted on November 3. At that time, Lieutenant Hutton had increased the
size of the company to eighty- five men. At Whipple, Lieutenant Cervantes had raised a similar
number of recruits for Company A, but none were mustered after November 6, the day he
received the Mason order.
Later in March of 1866, when General McDowell visited Arizona, he became aware of the
problems caused by the suspension order. For example, the previous December recruiters at Fort
McDowell enrolled several Pima and Maricopa volunteers but because of the order they had never
been mustered. In one case a principal sub- chief in Company C had been dropped from the
service, and this had caused dissent among the Pimas. McDowell recommended to General
Mason that all persons be mustered as of the date they actually began service in the regiment.
McDowell’s superior, General Henry W. Halleck, commanding the Division of the Pacific, agreed.
Halleck ordered all men enrolled at the time of the receipt of the August suspension order be
mustered into Federal service as of the date of their enlistment. Special Order 44, May 11, 1866,
District of Arizona, mustered five men of Company C and seven of Company B at Wickenburg on
May 14 and 16 by Lieutenant Barr. Special Order 45, May 13, 1866, directed Barr to muster on
June 15 two men of Company E who had been serving at Skull Valley with Company F.
19
After nearly three years of petitions by the governor, military leaders, and settlers in Arizona,
relief from the Apache menace seemed to be at hand. The volunteer regiment of five companies
consisted of just over 350 native Arizonans and nine officers. The volunteers were placed in
service just as Apache raiding was reaching new heights in central Arizona. Their mission was
clear: destroy Apache camps, crops, and supplies and kill all that resisted.
Arizona Volunteers Begin Duty
The Arizona Volunteers fought several different Apache groups. The Pimas and Maricopas sought
out Tonto Apaches in the region to the north of Fort McDowell. Numbering as many as fifty
persons, these bands lived in huts and planted crops along mountain streams. On several
occasions, the volunteers captured horses that they identified as having been stolen earlier from
their own villages. On one expedition, they killed a very large Indian, who had in his possession
a “ fine American rifle.” The soldiers at Camp Lincoln found Apaches living in primitive caves
and cliffs. At Skull Valley, the soldiers encountered Apache Mojaves, who boldly stopped wagon
trains along the Prescott- La Paz road. Armed variously with bows and arrows and rifles, they
demanded horses and mules.
The first foray by Arizona Volunteers, Companies B and C from Fort McDowell, was against
Apaches on September 8, 1865. Maricopa and Pima volunteers commanded by Lieutenant Riedt
accompanied Colonel Bennett’s California Volunteers on a scout northeast into the Tonto Basin
in search of Apache rancheria, or camps. Seven days later, after traveling some 110 miles, an
advance party of Company B surprised an Apache camp about nine miles east of Green Valley.
They killed an Apache and wounded several others. Two Maricopas were wounded; the
volunteers of B and C Companies looted and burned the rancheria before returning to Fort
McDowell on September 19. Several weeks later Company C led by Lieutenant Walker left Fort
McDowell again. On October 7, the Pimas routed an Apache band near the mouth of Tonto Creek
about fifty miles from McDowell. They killed five and captured eight Apaches. Both Indian
companies joined an expedition into Tonto Basin in late November. On the twenty- fourth, they
left Fort McDowell and remained in the field for six days. As there was no formal report of the
campaign, the force apparently found no apaches.
Colonel Bennett kept the volunteers in the field. In early December Lieutenant Walker’s Pima
Indians left Fort McDowell heading east for the Mazatzal Mountains. Eighty- two Pimas and forty
citizen Pimas, or ‘ Imelicms,” comprised Walker’s force. Two days out of camp, the men were
caught in a snowstorm, and suffered because they had no blankets or extra clothing. A scouting
party soon reported signs of Apaches in the fresh snow. The Indians apparently had been
searching for seeds. Believing that an Apache camp was nearby, Walker had his men saddle their
horses and prepare for a fight. Leaving the pack mules and supplies with a small guard, they
followed a small creek for three miles. Here, the volunteers discovered a recently abandoned
rancheria. There were twenty new huts at the camp, and from the footprints in the snow; the
party must have numbered about sixty persons. Walker sent part of his men back to where the
pack mules had been left for the night, and continued exploring. Across a nearby range, he
discovered a large deserted rancheria that soldiers had found on a previous trip. As their horses
were lame and the men needed clothing, most of the citizen Pimas and twenty- five of the Arizona
Volunteers returned to Fort McDowell.
On the morning of December 6, scouting continued, that night they camped at a spring called
“ Toke,” where Apaches had planted crops the season before. Contrary to custom, the volunteers
built fires because of the extreme cold. They saddled their horses before daylight the next
morning, leaving a dozen men to guard the camp and supplies. After riding into the mountains
for several miles, Walker halted the volunteers when Sergeant Antonio Azul noticed smoke that
he suspected to be from an Apache camp in the valley below. They immediately descended the
mountain and attacked the camp and captured one young man and one woman. The others had
fled through the snow into the dense forest. Footprints indicated that earlier that morning the
Apaches had crossed the mountain from the east to this camp. The soldiers also noted a small
patch of freshly planted wheat sticking through the snow. On searching the huts, Lieutenant
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Hancock found a $ 100 legal tender note and an envelope containing a letter. From this incident,
Hancock named a nearby stream “ Greenback Creek.”
When Walker returned to his supply camp that evening he saw a number of captive Apaches.
After he had left camp that morning, the guards saw smoke rising at the opposite side of the
valley. Corporal Mos Awk and five privates mounted horses and surprised the Apache camp,
killing one woman and taking seven captives. All of the Apache men were absent from the
rancheria at the time of the attack. Tracks showed that they had followed Walker’s Pimas a
short distance that morning before the volunteers turned into the mountains. Walker now
decided to return to Fort McDowell, most of the horses were lame, their hooves worn down by
the volcanic stones in the mountains. Some of the pack mules had been so weakened by the
snowstorm that they could scarcely carry their aparajos, or pack saddles. On the night of
December 9, the volunteers reached McDowell, full of spirit and eager to celebrate their victory.
During January and February of 1866, Company B again took the field to search for Apache
camps. In some cases, the Apaches took the offensive. For example, on January 1, when a
detachment of Company C left Fort McDowell for the Pima Villages, Apaches attacked them and
killed two volunteers, Hawnik Maw and Juan Lewis. In January- February, Company B had killed
thirty- three Apaches and taken eight captives.
General McDowell arrived at the Pima Villages on February 12 to inspect the Maricopa and Pima
Indian companies. He was pleased with the condition of their weapons, and praised their
attitude towards scouting. Before McDowell left the Pima Villages, he received a message from a
group of Papago Indians near Tucson expressing their willingness to join the volunteers and fight
Apaches. The Papagos expected to be furnished weapons and rations while they were in service.
McDowell approved their voluntary service and suggested they be included in an expedition as
soon as possible.
In early March, Lieutenants Ewing and Walker led a combined group of Pima and Maricopa
volunteers on a scout. After riding for two days, they observed a smoke cloud on a nearby
mountain. At sunset, the party halted. While waiting for the moon to rise, the Indians formed a
circle around their prophet, the “ tobacco mancer.” The prophet arose and began to smoke
cigarettes. As soon as he had smoked one cigarette, an attendant handed him another, until at
last he began “ to tremble and fell – dead—( stupefied).” Everyone remained silent. After lying on
the ground for a few minutes, the prophet arose and spoke: “ My spirits followed the trail towards
the Mazatzal ( the trail they were then on) until it comes under ( the mountain) peaks and there it
saw many warriors.” He continued, “ it then followed to the north . . . and nearby found a small
rancheria . . . which formerly lived nearer here, but one of their number died and from that cause
they changed their abode.”
After this revelation, the volunteers took a short nap. When the moon had risen high in the sky;
Walker and Ewing led their men up the mountain in search of the rancheria. On a little flat
halfway to the top, they found a deserted camp. They followed the tracks of two persons and
halted where mescal had been cut the day before. Scouts reported another rancheria at the
mouth of the canyon just below. Leaving a small guard with the horses, the volunteers began
descending the mountain. While climbing down, holding on to bushes and roots here and there,
one soldier accidentally discharged his musket. A moment later, the Apaches below began
swarming and shouting “ What a chal!’ “ Sop- e- Ka!” “ Run— Run, A shot— A shot.” Ewing later
reported: “ Our boys leaped over the stones, scrambled through the brush and got down in time
to bring down some of the hindmost as the ( Apaches) climbed up the rocks on the opposite side
of where their huts were situated. The volunteers chased the Apaches until sunrise, killing
twenty and wounding several more. Ewing’s men destroyed the huts, baskets, cooking vessels,
clothing, and a large pot of mescal. Walker recognized a sack and tobacco pouch that had
belonged to a member of this company who had been killed in January. The rancheria was
situated about twenty miles from the Polas Blancas on the headwaters of the “ Kok- we- Tan,” or
Rattlesnake’s Creek, and about forty miles from Fort McDowell.
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In mid- March, the volunteers were again in the field. A large number of citizen Pimas,
Maricopas, and Papagos accompanied the expedition. On order from Colonel Bennett, Orders
number 10, the blacksmith at Fort McDowell checked the horses of the volunteers and volunteer
citizens and applied new shoes as needed. The quartermaster furnished pack mules to carry
supplies. Bennett ordered a temporary subsistence depot established on Tonto Creek, and sent
825 pounds of pinole, dried beef, and other rations to the depot. Bennett spared no expense to
make the expedition the largest and most successful launched at Fort McDowell up to that time.
On March 27, Ewing and Walker led both companies of Arizona Volunteers east up the Gila River
with 260 Papagos and Pimas and forty Maricopas. When the men stopped for rests those without
rifles or muskets worked on war clubs. Scouts found a trail that contained fresh cattle and horse
tracks, and four days later, they entered the mountains. When an eclipse of the moon occurred,
the soldiers stopped. In the darkness they spotted a campfire several miles away. With
moonlight illuminating their trail, they left their horses and hastened toward the fire. At the
bottom of the canyon, they spotted footprints of people and animals. The officers ordered the
men to remove their shoes, and proceed quietly through the rocks, carrying their rifles securely.
At the edge of a small stony bluff, they discovered Apaches clapping their hands in an attempt to
alert their companions.
The volunteers attacked the camp, killing Indians of both sexes as they ran from their huts.
Upon reaching the area, they captured several women and children. The headman of the village
was shot when he ran from a hiding place. The volunteers killed a total of twenty- five Apaches,
took sixteen prisoners, and captured eight horses, which the Pimas claimed had been taken from
their own villages. Three Pima soldiers were wounded and one died later. The Pimas, mourning
the death of their fellow soldier, took some of their own clothing and burned the corpse. The
volunteers set fire to the huts, baskets, and skins. As they left the camp, they could see hostile
Apaches standing on large rocks on the mountain making howling noises and hand motions.
Ewing and Walker took their men several miles around the mountain to prevent being injured by
rocks, which the Apaches rolled down toward them. The volunteers returned to Fort McDowell in
high “ war” spirits. Noting the Indian’s enthusiasm, Colonel Bennett ordered another campaign
to leave directly from the Pima and Maricopa villages. But, the success of scouting expeditions
that followed immediately had mixed results. During May they covered 180 miles, but located no
Apache camps.
In late July, a Maricopa- Pima group returned to Fort McDowell, reporting they had killed two
Apaches in the mountains and three in a rancheria north of Fort McDowell. On the return trip
they had killed another and captured three. The horses were in bad condition because of
constant rains. Walker’s Pimas also scouted the mountains. On their return to Fort McDowell,
the Pimas also found a rancheria, but the enemy fled before the volunteers could attack. To the
north, at Camp Lincoln, other companies of Arizona Volunteers were active. Company E left
Lincoln on the night of February 11, 1866, on their first successful campaign. Four days earlier
on February 7, Captain Washburn had written Acting Governor Richard D. McCormick that he did
not anticipate any great expectations from his volunteers, but hoped in a few trials to
accomplish something by some of them.
Lieutenant Gallegos, Dr. Edward Palmer, the contract Army surgeon, and forty- five men of
Company E headed northeast with five days’ rations and thirty rounds of ammunition each. The
men wore moccasins made from worn out shoes and scraps of rawhide and buckskin. They
concealed themselves by day. At the South fork of Beaver Creek, around nine o’clock, scouts
reported they had followed two Indians to a camp located in a series of five caves. By two
o’clock in the morning, Gallegos had positioned his detachment in front of the caves. At
daybreak, Gallegos, shouting in the Apache dialect, called to the Indians to surrender, the
defenders opened fire. At mid- morning one Indian yelled back that he would die rather than
surrender. The Indians made a stubborn resistance, and many of them must have been shot
because the volunteers heard “ moans, shrieks, and yells” among the enemy. After the battle, the
caves presented a horrible sight. Dead of all ages and sexes lay mixed with household goods and
provisions, covered with dirt brought down from the ceilings by the firing. Thirty Indians were
killed in the lower caverns and twelve were captured.
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Because those higher in the cliffs would not surrender, Gallegos decided not to prolong the fight.
His men ransacked the lower caves, taking all provisions, buckskins, and other valuables that
could be carried back to camp. One soldier caustically remarked that the Indians were better
supplied than the Camp Lincoln commissary. Seven soldiers received wounds in the fight and all
received miner stone bruises from rocks, which the Indians threw in defense. Taking two women
and ten children as prisoners, the volunteers headed back to Camp Lincoln, arriving on the
morning of February 15. In his report to Captain Washburn, Gallegos praised his command for
bravery in the “ Battle of the Five Caves.” The volunteers, he said, had assaulted “ the mouths of
the caves ( through) arrows flying as thick as hail.”
Washburn and an escort of eighteen volunteers took the Apache prisoners to Fort Whipple on
February 19. There they received hearty congratulations for the excellent performance of his
men. The Army quartermaster issued buckskin for new sandals and several pounds of tobacco as
a token acknowledgment of their success. Acting Governor McCormick praised the volunteers,
saying their recent attack on the Apaches met the “ hearty and general commendation” of all
Arizonans. He suggested that other expeditions take the field during the spring and summer.
The Arizona Volunteers, he added, “ may do more than all ( others) who have preceded them in the
subjugation of the Apaches in this part of the Territory.” Washburn asked Captain John Green,
Post Adjutant at Fort Whipple, for the services of a guide named Antonio Dias, but Dias was on
another assignment. He inquired again about lances for his men to use in close contact with the
Apaches, and if none were available or could be made, he wanted Colt revolvers.
Dr. Palmer, who accompanied Lieutenant Gallegos’ expedition, published his account of the
“ Battle of the Five Caves” in the Prescott Weekly Miner. The volunteers had worn homemade
sandals, packed their own provisions, and traveled over 100 miles on foot during the campaign.
They had surprised the Apaches, whose dogs had not even heard the troops approach, so
“ stealthily had been their march.” Palmer praised the volunteers for their ability to traverse
rough country at night. Palmer felt that a few more battles would “ forever quiet the hellish
Apache.” He added that he had offered the men a dollar’s worth of tobacco for every Apache they
killed in the future, so “ that they may smoke the pipe of peace over the peaceable and harmless
condition of those who fall under their guns.”
In early March, the officers at Camp Lincoln prepared the volunteers for another campaign. They
had them make extra moccasins from the buckskin taken at the recent battle and tried to
instruct them in some tactical exercises for fighting the Indians. On March 1, Lieutenant
Gallegos and sixty men left Camp Lincoln, heading eastward along an Indian trail and carrying
five day’s rations. The scout was unsuccessful, the men returned five days later without having
seen an Indian. Captain Washburn and Gallegos agreed that, if they were to be effective, they
needed a guide familiar with the area.
Another campaign was launched on March 20 on foot. Lieutenant Cervantes and Dr. Palmer left
camp with twenty- six men of Company A, heading southeast and carrying ten days’ rations and
forty rounds of ammunition. At ten o’clock that night, after traveling about eighteen miles,
Cervantes rested his men for a few hours and then traveled twelve miles farther. The next day,
the scout continued. That night, the commander sent out men to look for campfires. At
midnight the scouts reported a large number of fires fifty or sixty miles away. But, Cervantes
felt the distance was too great, and changed his course. The volunteers moved on, with
Cervantes each night sending out scouts to look for campfires. When the scouts reported that a
camp was not far away, Cervantes ordered his command forward, but stopped two hours later at
the edge of a steep canyon situated at the headwaters of the Salt River. The location was about
seventy miles southeast of Camp Lincoln. Shortly before daylight, Cervantes sent eighteen men
toward the camp. Within twenty yards of the Indians, the soldiers began firing. In the ensuing
fight, the volunteers killed twenty- two Apaches, wounded seven of the eight that escaped,
captured two children, and destroyed the camp. Two soldiers received arrow wounds. The party
returned to Camp Lincoln on March 25.
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The volunteers had “ behaved admirably,” the Prescott Miner reported. They had been
constantly “ eager for the march, and returned in fine spirits.” This second victory within a
month had earned the Camp Lincoln forces a “ proud name, and . . . praises ( were) everywhere
shouted.” The soldiers understood how to fight the Apaches and were willing to undertake long
and tiresome night marches into the mountains to search for Apache camps. The volunteers,
with less expense, less parade, and less delay, were effectively ridding the country of its greatest
barrier to prosperity. In comparison with regular troops, the newspaper said, “ the spirit and
courage of the regulars could not be questioned, but they were not familiar with the country, had
little knowledge of the Apaches, and would not subsist on coarse food - - all of which were
requisite to successful campaigning in central Arizona.”
Campaigning into the mountains continued. On March 21, Lieutenant Gallegos, Dr. Palmer, and
fifty- six men of Company E scouted the country north of Camp Lincoln for six days. But the
volunteers made no contact with the enemy. They had located a small Apache camp, but the
Indians discovered them and hid in the brush and rocks. The soldiers also discovered several
more Indians carrying packs, but since it was nearly dark, the volunteers did not attempt to
follow.
In mid- April, despite short rations Captain Washburn led twenty- five men of Company E into the
mountains west of Camp Lincoln to improve the wagon route to Fort Whipple. Enroute the
volunteers attacked a party of thirty Apaches, killing six, wounding several more, and capturing
one. Two soldiers received severe sprained ankles in the fighting. At the time, a party of
twenty- seven Indians, armed with bows and arrows, ambushed Sergeant Miguel Elias and six
privates on escort duty between Camp Lincoln and Fort Whipple near Ash Creek. In the fighting,
two Indian men were killed and one wounded, but the other Indians drove off the pack mule
carrying all the soldiers’ blankets.
In late May, the supply situation at Camp Lincoln improved. The previous month, the lack of
provisions had permitted only short expeditions, and Washburn had sent thirty soldiers at a time
to transport supplies in small lots from Fort Whipple. With improved rations, Gallegos on May
23, with sixty members of Company A and E marched from Camp Lincoln on an eight- day scout
to the north. Four day later, the volunteers reached the Little Colorado and San Francisco
rivers. Here they found a large number of vacant camps in a deep canyon with Gallegos named
Calevera. By the end of the month, the volunteers were back at Lincoln.
In early June, a large group of Apaches, estimated at ninety persons, ambushed Sergeant Elias
and nine men of Company E at Grief Hill just west of Camp Lincoln. The soldiers were returning
from Fort Whipple, leading ten pack mules carrying corn and supplies and driving five head of
beef cattle. The Indians wounded Sergeant Elias and one private, drove off the cattle, and killed
two of the pack mules. Lieutenant Gallegos and thirty volunteers hurried to assist Sergeant Elias
but arrived too late to help. Gallegos again took the field, with fifty- two men of Companies A and
E, he headed northwest in an effort to find the Apaches who had taken the cattle. On June 16,
the volunteers found two recently abandoned rancherias and a cattle trail leading towards Black
Canyon. Three days later, they found an old deserted fortification. Here Gallegos decided to
return to camp because several of his men were sick.
In early July, Lieutenant Gallegos and fifty men of Company E scouted southeast towards White
River in the Tonto Basin. His scouts reported eighteen “ smokes from Indian fires” some twenty
miles away. Moving after dark, they headed toward the fires, and the next day located and
destroyed a small patch of corn. Reports soon reached Gallegos that his advance group had
found a rancheria and that the Indians were agitated and moving about. Gallegos hurried half of
his detachment into the mountains. The volunteers captured an old man who told them that
only five men, one woman, and a child had been at the camp, and that they had been there only
two days. When Gallegos took the old man to Camp Lincoln, the volunteers named him,
“ Paymaster.” As most of the men had received no pay up to that time, the wrinkled old man,
nearly blind, without a tooth, and almost naked, seemed to be as good a paymaster as they might
see. During the day, the old Indian moved freely about the camp, but the soldiers locked him up
at night. One morning, he was missing from camp, and a search began. The volunteers
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discovered him in a ravine where he had fallen. As he had injured himself so badly that he could
not be moved, one of the volunteers shot him where he lay to end his suffering.
On July 17, Captain Washburn led ten soldiers mounted on mules up the Verde River on a two-day
expedition. At a distance of thirty miles, they came upon a new rancheria of twenty- six
lodges, but Indians discovered the soldiers before they could attack the camp. The Apaches ran
into the hills, and began screaming and making “ grotesque jestures ( sic).” Washburn’s men
looted the camp, and started back to Camp Lincoln, enroute they found two of the five cattle
taken in early June. This was the first fresh meat the volunteers had in several months. In
addition to campaigning, the volunteers at Camp Lincoln spent much of July and August
escorting supply parties from Fort Whipple to Camp Lincoln, and guarding a field of ripe corn at
the Clear Fork settlement south of the camp.
While the troops at Camp Lincoln on the Verde were scouting almost weekly for the hostile
Apaches, the volunteers of Lieutenant Hutton’s Company F at Skull Valley southwest of Prescott
were performing more prosaic but equally hazardous duty. As early as January 1866, Hutton
drew on his company for escort duty. He detailed five men to accompany a wagon enroute to
Prescott from La Paz. Eight miles from the Skull valley camp, a band of fifty Indians attacked
the wagon, killing two of the guards and wounding a third man in a three- hour fight. The wagon
contained a large cargo of ammunition from the Fort Yuma Depot for Fort Whipple. Hutton
regularly sent men to escort freight wagons along the road from Prescott to La Paz, and to
protect ranches at Skull Valley throughout the spring.
In late May, fifteen of Lieutenant Hutton’s company undertook their first campaign. This group,
on foot, started into the mountains to search for Indian camps. The foray was unsuccessful and
the party returned to camp on June 1. At the end of June, thirteen members of Company F
again scouted in the mountains, but found no Indians. On July 13, Hutton marched on foot with
eighteen Arizona Volunteers and eighteen California Volunteers from Fort Whipple north of
Prescott. After winding through the mountains for nearly two weeks, Hutton discovered fresh
Indian signs, but a steep canyon wall prevented the men and the pack animals from getting
down. They camped there for the night, the next morning they descended the mountain range at
an angle of forty- five degrees for nearly a mile. At the bottom, the party surprised an Indian
camp. They killed an Indian, wounded two others, captured two children, and burned the camp.
The following day, Lieutenant Hutton’s party reached the Verde River. They passed an
abandoned rancheria that had accommodated about fifteen Indians, and saw smoke signals on
the west side of the Verde some five miles away and several caves, forts, earthworks, and fresh
Indian signs. Hutton’s volunteers reached Camp Lincoln on July 27, here they rested for two
days, then returned to Skull Valley. Hutton’s expedition had traversed three hundred miles of
lava stone country. It had rained nearly every day. He praised the men for enduring every
hardship with the “ greatest degree of cheerfulness.” He reported that his men had been issued
double- soled nailed shoes, but they had worn out after ten or fifteen days, so the men had to
make moccasins from the skin of a bear they had killed.
On August 11, word came from the leader of a wagon train about eight miles from Lieutenant
Hutton’s camp that a large band of Indians had stopped it. As they hurried to assist, the soldiers
saw seven teamsters and four guards talking with five Indians. Four of the Indians professed to
be seeking peace and returned to their group. The fifth Indian was taken to Hutton’s camp for
questioning. An interpreter recognized the captive as the notorious La Paz Charley, although the
Indian tried to conceal his identity by talking through his teeth. Charley said that the band
wanted mules from the wagon train. He warned that they were determined to “ clean out” the
valley, claiming to own in addition to the wood, water, and grass, all of the corn recently planted
there by the settlers. He said the band included Apache Mojaves, Mojaves, Hualapais, and
Apache Tontos.
Irataba, Chief of the Mojaves, was aware of their intentions and had warned them not to leave the
reservation. La Paz Charley said that the Apache Tontos had encouraged the other Indians to
leave the reservation, capture the wagon train, and kill the Arizona Volunteers at Skull Valley.
The next day, the hills around Skull Valley swarmed with Indians. Some ventured into camp,
25
claiming to be friendly Apache Mojaves. Lieutenant Hutton talked with one of them at a distance
of two hundred yards. The conversation was about the same as the day before. The Indian told
Hutton that George Leahy, Indian agent at La Paz, wanted fifty buckskins and had told the
Indians to get them wherever possible. Hutton detected that the Indian was lying, and he sent a
messenger to Fort Whipple to report the matter. The band had strayed forty miles beyond the
line laid down by the District Commander of Arizona. Hutton was advised to punish the Indians,
“ but to use discretion and not force the matter.”
On August 13, the wagon train left camp, heading for Prescott with an escort of four soldiers. A
mile and a half away, Indians approached the wagons attempting to show their identification
papers. Lieutenant Hutton brought up the rest of his men, and instructed the Indians to leave
their bows and arrows behind. Nearly eighty Indians left their bows and arrows and approached
the wagons again. As they approached, some drew knives from their clothing and brandished
them in the air. Hutton sent a sentinel to a hill nearby to study the situation. Shortly, he
reported that five Indians with guns were in the rocks above and that the hills were full of
Indians exchanging arm signals. About this time, an old squaw cried out in Spanish, “ Pitch into
them!” – “ You can whip them with your knives!” She shouted the command several times with
increase emphasis. Hutton warned his men to keep the Indians at a distance. But the Indians
came closer. One Indian, who claimed to be a chief, jabbed his knife at a teamster, trying to
conceal his movement with buckskin on his left arm. When another Indian thrust the knife at a
volunteer and struck his hand, the soldier killed him. Close fighting then broke out and raged
for forty- five minutes. The volunteers killed twenty- three Indians and wounded around fifty
others. Hutton believed that Hitachepitche, a chief of the Hualapais, was among the Indians
killed. One volunteer was killed, and one received severe cuts on the hand, but the teamsters
were uninjured.
From January through August of 1866, the Arizona Volunteers had performed arduous duty in
central Arizona. Military and governmental leaders expressed great satisfaction at their
determination and success in hunting down Apaches. Maricopas, Pimas, and Mexicans all eagerly
took the field and pushed forward readily, and relished the opportunity to kill their hereditary
enemies. Their methods were not overlooked, as they served as important examples for the
regular army to follow in later efforts to subjugate the hostile Apache. Settlers, miners, and
travelers all praised the volunteers for helping create zones of relative safety in a hostile land.
Camp Life
Throughout their enlistment, the Arizona Volunteers lived in primitive conditions in camp. Few
permanent buildings were constructed at the posts where they served. Consequently, life in
garrison was hard. The men generally lived in brush shelters and had limited rations. Hostile
Indians constantly lurked in the vicinity, and two volunteers were brutally killed on the Verde
while fishing near the post. Despite these hardships, however, the morale of the men remained
high during their period of service.
In early March of 1866, General John S. Mason took notice of the needs of the Arizona
Volunteers. Paragraph seven of General Mason’s plan stipulated that no permanent building
would be constructed at any post for the volunteers, except those absolutely necessary to house
supplies and for treatment of the sick and injured. No quarters “ other than shades or shelters”
were to be erected for the enlisted men. Furthermore, only a small guard would be detailed for
each post. In this way, the balance of the soldiers could be kept “ constantly on the move after
Indians— returning to their posts only to refit and for supplies.” From the start, the Arizona
Volunteers built their own quarters. In several instances— at Fort McDowell, Camp Lincoln, and
Skull Valley— they actually constructed an entire post.
The plan to construct temporary shelters provoked sharp criticism. Thus, the volunteers at
Camp Lincoln, one soldier wrote, from the start had " no tents, deficient clothin ( sic), and half
rations.” The shelters the men put up consisted of willow branches and poles covered with earth.
At Camp Lincoln, Dr. Palmer hired several soldiers to build a hut to serve as a dispensary.
26
Materials for this facility included reed for sides, roof, and doors. The inside was lined with
blankets to keep out the wind, but it was a " dark, dirty miserable hovel." he later said.
The problem of supplying the posts in Arizona was critical in 1866. When the War Department
transferred Arizona from the Department of New Mexico to the Department of California, supplies
for the new district came from California via Fort Yuma and Fort Mohave on the Colorado River.
Low river levels during the winter of 1865 caused long delays in up- stream transportation. Once
steamers reached Fort Mohave, delivering food and equipment overland by wagon to the
scattered outposts required a great amount of time. The Arizona Volunteers often were unable to
take to the field because of severe shortages of rations. In April when Camp Lincoln and Skull
Valley were completely without flour, coffee, and sugar, the commissaries issued to each man
three- quarters of a pound of rice instead of flour. Rations issued to the volunteers on campaigns
usually included dried beef and coffee, when they were available, and pinole, a food made of
roasted, ground, and sweetened corn or wheat. Pinole consisted of about one part of sugar to two
parts of corn or wheat and was mixed with water. This mixture was supposedly “ very
refreshing.”
Clothing and shoes were equally deficient. The volunteers felt that they received few clothes
because they were considered as “ scum” at the posts where they had enlisted or briefly served.
As a result, they had to endure the cold weather without proper clothing, bedding, or shoes.
Some of the volunteers without shoes tied their feet up in rags. At Camp Lincoln, most of the
men without shoes managed to obtain enough untanned rawhide to make their own moccasins,
which they called “ teguas.” The soles were turned up at the sides so that the sides would not
wear out quickly, and also would render broader soles. A hole was left in the sole so a man could
shake out gravel and sand easily.
Although the soldiers suffered from inadequate shelters and improper food and clothing, they
were well equipped for warfare against the Apaches. According to a report of the Office of the
Chief of Ordnance, Company A was armed with the .58 caliber, Springfield rifled muskets. The
other companies, except Company B, which was not in the report, received .54 caliber, U. S.
Model 1840 rifles. The June 1866 report for the regiment showed only one rifle as unserviceable.
One company had bayonets. All companies received cap pouches, cone picks, gun slings, waist
belts and plates, and screwdrivers and cone wrenches. Three companies had a limited number of
ball screws, spring vices, tompions, and arms chests. The inventory of cartridges for the
regiment at that time included 770 rounds of .58 caliber cartridges and 9,879 rounds of .54
caliber cartridges.
Camp life, of course, had diversions. At Camp Lincoln the records indicate that there were
sixteen wives and female companions living with the men. The women were sourly denounced by
Dr. Palmer as coming from that “ mixed race of Spanish and Indians that the Catholic Church has
made into a peculiar kind of Christians.” Whenever the volunteers returned from an expedition,
the women formed into a procession and marched out of camp to meet them. Palmer said the
women were “ mostly prostitutes living promiscuously among the soldiers; and as soon as one’s
means of support gave out, they took another mate.”
The volunteers frequently experienced a scarcity of smoking tobacco. As a substitute they used
willow bark, “ old checoa” ( unidentifiable), tealeaves, and fresh coffee grounds, which had a strong
narcotic effect. The men also cooked, dried, and smoked the leaves of the mescal plant. This
concoction was very pleasant and sweet, but it would gum up a pipe.
Even at camp, the volunteers often found life precarious. To supplement their diet, they
occasionally walked down to the Verde River to fish. In late February of 1866, two men went
fishing. One man returned early, but the other, Roque Ramirez, stayed for a while. The next
morning a search party found his body in the river, stiff and cold with three arrow wounds.
There was a humorous sequel to this tragedy. The widow, Maria Antonio Ressetto, was soon
beset with “ would- be husbands.” She asked Captain Washburn to help her select another man;
Washburn suggested Private Loreto Hernandez of his company. He instructed Dr. Palmer, who
was going to Fort Whipple for supplies, to arrange their marriage.
27
On May 1, at Prescott, the justice of the peace “ tied the conjugal knot” for the couple,
conducting the ceremony through the aid of an interpreter. Dignitaries at Prescott attended the
wedding. Governor McCormick prepared the marriage certificate. Dr. Palmer paid his share of
the celebration, contributing $ 28 “ to make the couple happy.” Officers at Fort Whipple
contributed wine so liberally that the occasion became one of “ great Jollity.” Reflecting Later,
Palmer noted that the civil ceremony provided just as legal and binding a marriage as that
performed by the Catholic Church. The Prescott Weekly Miner patronizingly wished the couple
“ untold tortillas and frijoles and a long line of fandango loving heirs.” Palmer and the newly
married couple left at the end of the week for Camp Lincoln with two wagons of supplies.
Several of the volunteer companies experienced much illness. Men recruited in southern Arizona
came down with bad colds brought on by wet weather and exposure from sleeping on the ground;
others were prostrated by malarial conditions along the Verde River and by improper diet. Every
soldier from southern Arizona, except Captain Washburn, suffered from various forms of fever.
In August, a few days before the first troops at Camp Lincoln were discharged from service, as
many as sixty at a time reported to Dr. Palmer for medical attention. Palmer said that the fever
“ so prevalent in Arizona had assumed a tropical nature.” Various forms of typhoid and bilious
disorders resulted from continued attacks of fever caused by the rains and excessive humidity.
Palmer said the Verde Valley was hemmed in on each side by mountains, which prevented a free
sweep of winds. In sharp contrast, not a single individual from the Indian companies was
reported sick on the Post Returns.
The Arizona Volunteers also encountered other difficulties. As they spoke no common language,
translators were always required. Two of the officers were Mexicans; but only one spoke both
English and Spanish. Reports written by one officer had to be translated from Spanish to English
before they were sent to District Headquarters. One officer spoke the Pima Language. Other
officers spoke combinations of English and Maricopa, English and Pima, or English and Spanish.
One of the Mexican officers spoke the Apache dialect, and no doubt, some of the Pimas and the
Maricopas spoke an Apache dialect as well.
In early August, Governor McCormick, his wife, and Adjutant General Garvin visited Camp
Lincoln. A detachment of ten volunteers met the governor’s party at the King Woolsey’s Agua
Fria Ranch as an escort to the Verde Valley. While at Camp Lincoln, Captain Washburn,
Lieutenant Gallegos and his wife, and several soldiers accompanied McCormick on a leisurely
visit to some Indian ruins, presently known as Montezuma’s Castle, set on a high bluff.
McCormick considered them to have one been “ substantial homes,” and among the most “ perfect
and remarkable in the Territory.” He said that every visitor to the Verde should see them.
Earlier in the year, several attempts had been made to retain the Arizona Volunteers in Federal
service. In early May, Colonel Bennett at Fort McDowell had petitioned the Adjutant General for
the District of Arizona to either extend the volunteer unit or to replace it with a full native
regiment for an all out war against the Apaches. The service and experience of the volunteers
would enable them to perform even better in the future. Bennett suggested that Pimas,
Maricopas, Papagos, and Mexicans were familiar with the country, frontier life, and hardships,
and would be of great assistance in bringing the hostile Apaches to terms. Careful selection of
officers would ensure “ sobriety, good judgement, energy and integrity.” If the Federal
government did not retain the volunteers in service, Colonel Bennett urged that they be allowed
to retain their arms and accoutrements after discharge. In this way, the men could continue
fighting the Apaches whenever an opportunity presented itself.
On June 1, Governor McCormick had written to Secretary of War Stanton urging him to retain
the Arizona Volunteers. McCormick estimated the number of hostile Indians in the territory to
be fewer than 1,000 of a total population of 5,000. The hostiles roamed approximately 25,000
square miles of mountain and desert country, an area nearly the size of the states of
Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Their domain lay primarily in eastern and central
Arizona. Apache raids had focused on the roads connecting Tucson, Pima Villages, Wickenburg,
28
and Prescott, and the mining and farming camps scattered along the Hassayampa, Agua Fria,
Verde, Salinas, and Gila rivers, and along the Arizona- Sonora border.
McCormick believed the only way to obtain a permanent peace with the Apaches was to fight and
conquer them, not through defensive operations, but through hunting them in the mountains.
To offer the Apaches a reservation and expect them to stay on it, or make a treaty with them,
would be to exhibit gross ignorance of the Indians’ disposition. He thought the Apaches must be
driven from their “ retreats, however difficult to reach, until they sued for peace.” McCormick
felt that every effort must be made to prevent the Apaches from planting crops, harvesting the
mescal ranges, and from “ jerking” wild game or stolen beef.
In early July of 1866, however, the War Department had officially rejected the possibility of
extending the enlistment of the First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment. There was no law
under which the native soldiers could be retained for Federal service, and if a decision were made
to organize another regiment of native Arizonans, special legislation would be necessary for
subsisting, equipping, and paying the soldiers.
With no way of retaining the Arizona Volunteers in service in the Arizona Territory, the
commanders set about preparing to muster their men out of service. Conditions of camp life and
hardships in the field had not been too severe for the hearty Maricopas, Pimas, and Mexicans, for
they had realized from the start that “ hunting Apaches” would not be an easy undertaking.
Discharge
When official news reached the Arizona Territory that the War Department had rejected
extending the Arizona Volunteers in the Federal service, the military leaders began preparation
for discharging a regiment that contained 333 enlisted men and ten officers. There were
discharge papers to be completed, men to be paid for their term of service, some had received no
pay for nearly a full year, and final assessments and reports to be made of the impact of the
Arizona volunteers on the Apaches in Arizona.
The first companies discharged were at Camp Lincoln. Captain Washburn went to Fort Whipple
on August 4 to secure discharge forms, final statements, and muster rolls for Companies A and E,
whose enlistment would end before the close of the month. Back at Camp Lincoln he ordered
those men in Company E whose enlistment would end by August 11 to march immediately to
Fort Whipple. Sixty- five men were mustered out between August 12 and November 7. First
Lieutenant John M. Ver Mehr, who had served as an aide to General Mason, had been discharged
on June 27. Captain Hiram S. Washburn and Second Lieutenant Manuel Gallegos were released
on November 7. Company records indicated that Private Roque Ramirez had been killed by
Indians, three men died of Illness: Vicente Bracamontes, Felipe Cordova, and Santaigo Guiterrez.
Six men deserted Company E shortly before they received orders to march from Fort Mason to
Fort Whipple: Antonio Cota, Encarnacion Dias, Abelardo Flores, Jose Ma. Mondragon, Plutarco
Morales, and Juan Vega.
Twenty- eight volunteers of Company A terminated their service between August 23 and October
15. Second Lieutenant Primitivo Cervantes had resigned on June 7, 1866. First Lieutenant
William H. Ford who served also as post quartermaster at Camp Lincoln, had replaced him. Ford
received his discharge on October 7, 1866. There was no record of deserters and illness for the
company. One soldier, Private John Broderick had been killed on April 20.
By mid- September Captain Washburn’s command at Camp Lincoln was reduced to fewer than a
dozen men. He reported to Adjutant General Garvin that Indians were beginning to steal corn
from the farms along the Verde River at the rate of thirty to forty bushels a night. There was but
one soldier at the camp who was able to shoulder a musket, and he was left to guard what
remained of the commissary stores. Washburn felt the Indians might attack his camp and take
the remaining livestock. He wrote: “ if assistance does not come very soon, I shall have to
abandon what government property I am trying to protect, and seek security for animals and
29
myself.” Settlers at the Clear Creek settlement helped him transfer the government supplies
from Camp Lincoln to the settlement six miles south of Camp Lincoln.
One night near the end of September, Lieutenant Gallegos, an enlisted man, and two citizens
named Lang and Ceiderman went to the cornfields to watch for Indians. When the men arrived,
they heard the Indians already there gathering corn. Ceiderman discharged his shotgun, which
was loaded with wire cartridges and buckshot. The blast killed an Indian woman carrying about a
bushel of corn from the field. The next day, the men dragged the woman’s body along the trail to
the field and hung it up in a field to frighten other Indians away. The fields were quiet. On
September 29, Captain George M. Downey, commanding Company C, First Battalion, Fourteenth
Infantry, relieved Captain Washburn at Camp Lincoln.
The first complete company of Arizona Volunteers was discharged from service on September 11,
1866, at Fort McDowell. This was Company B of Maricopa Indians commanded by First
Lieutenant Thomas Ewing and Captain Juan Chevereah. Second Lieutenant Charles Riedt was
mustered out two days later. The men were allowed to retain their firearms and accoutrements.
Value of the weapons was six dollars each, or a total of $ 522. Muster rolls showed four members
of the company had died in battles with the Apaches: McGill, Yose, Goshe Zep, and Duke. There
was no record of illnesses. Six men had deserted Company B: Beba Apmaya, Denyan Mabker,
Conina, Homor Goder, Mru Sio, and Morkenb.
Company C of Pima Indians was mustered out on September 13 also at Fort McDowell. Captain
John D. Walker, First Lieutenant William A. Hancock, and Second Lieutenant Antonio Azul were
also discharged the same day. Eighty- four men retained firearms valued at 513.23. Three Pimas
had been killed in battles with the Apaches: Hownik Mawkum, Juan Lewis, and Au Papat. There
was no record of illness. Susan Poche and Lewis deserted Company C on December 1, 1865.
Company F at Skull Valley was discharged from service in October and five on dates after
October 31. Second Lieutenant Oscar F. Hutton was probably discharged from service on
November 7 with Captain Washburn, but that cannot be substantiated from the muster rolls. The
value of firearms retained by them was $ 126.65. Three soldiers had been killed in engagements
with hostile Apaches: Jose Anselmo, Bernardino Escalante, and Paulino Espinosa; and six men
had deserted: Jose Ma. Romero, Concepcion Morales, Jose Natamee, Canuto Perez, Jose Romero,
and Juan Jose Balenzuela.
The question of pay for the Arizona Volunteers rankled for quite a while. At Fort McDowell, the
volunteer companies had been paid only once during their service. Colonel Bennett, wrote his
superior about the problem. On November 24, Paymaster General Benjamin W. Brice in
Washington, D. C. ordered Paymaster Leonard to stop payments after October 31. Money was
short for paying troops being mustered out of service. As his two paymasters would be detained
in Arizona until after the December 31 muster, Paymaster Leonard let the matter ride. In early
August of 1866, Paymaster General Brice stated that he anticipated no future delays in the
payment of troops on the Pacific Coast. The California Volunteers had been mustered out, and
there were a sufficient number of paymasters and funds to meet all demands.
The Arizona Volunteers had been a unique group. Officers of those companies comprised mostly
of Mexican soldiers reported discipline as good; one commander described his command as
“ obedient.” The Pima and Maricopa commanders described discipline among their commands as
“ good for Indians,” and all commanders praised their men for their military response. Despite
trying circumstances of service, the number of deserters and casualties had been low. From the
five companies of nearly 350 men, only twenty had deserted. Company A, composed of Mexicans
from central Arizona reported no deserters. The casualty record for the one- year of service was
remarkably low. Only ten volunteers had been killed in battles with the Apaches, Five men died
of illness and the number seriously wounded was thirteen.
Their effectiveness in the field was demonstrated by their accomplishments. Reports of the
number of Apaches killed varied because of the possibility of double counting among the Pima
and Maricopa companies. However, with this possibility in mind, some 150 to 173 Apaches were
30
killed, thirty- eight were seriously wounded, and fifty- eight were captured. The Pima and
Maricopa volunteers captured eight horses, and the Mexican volunteers at Camp Lincoln lost
three pack mules and five heads of cattle, four of which were later found.
The volunteers received lavish praise from the editor of the Prescott Weekly Miner. These men
“ of whom many expected no efficient service,” had killed a large number of Apaches and had
wounded and captured even more, he said. The volunteers showed that they could make short
and inexpensive work of subjugating the Apache. It was regrettable that the volunteer soldiers
had to remain in camp for want of rations because they had shown their capacity for
campaigning. Many observers admitted that the Apaches could not be subdued by soldiers who
had to spend time building posts or scouting in the mountains encumbered with pack trains.
The quick night march on foot, with few provisions and a single blanket, was the “ telling
maneuver and the only one which will insure success.” The editor suggested that the method of
warfare used by the Arizona Volunteers be adopted by the regular Army.
The Arizona Volunteer Infantry also received praise from territorial leaders. Governor
McCormick thought that the volunteers were the best- suited soldiers for Apache Warfare. Most
of the regulars had no knowledge of the country, little interest in it, and felt exiled in Arizona.
He was not convinced that the Companies of Pimas and Maricopas were reliable. While they were
bitterly opposed to the Apaches and killed a great number, they were too superstitious to be good
soldiers. The Indians believed in witchcraft, and many were unwilling to undertake campaigns
until their wizards had indicated that the signs were right for them. Upon killing even a single
Indian, the Pima and Maricopa soldiers insisted upon returning to their villages to celebrate.
There, they sauntered about in indolence, “ pompously arrayed in their uniforms, including
overcoats, even when the mercury marks over tropical temperature.”
McCormick praised the Mexican soldiers. They were determined to avenge the loss of friends
and property to the Apaches. The Mexicans preferred active duty to camp life, could make long
night marches into the mountains, and relished making surprise daylight attacks upon the
Apaches. The Mexicans could subsist on jerked beef and pinole, which was the most inexpensive
and easily obtained food. They also were willing to harass the Apaches and, if necessary to
exterminate them.
Captain Washburn stated that he had never before spent such unremitting toil as his sixteen and
one- half months of service in Arizona. If the needed supplies had been furnished, the record of
his command would have been greater. Washburn thought that the volunteers by far were
superior to any others for field service in Arizona. He thought that 300 volunteers, well
officered, at an annual expense of less than $ 800 per man could within two years rid the
territory of the greatest obstacle to its progress. The volunteers he commanded had fearlessly
carried warfare into the heart of Indian country around present- day Globe, the Graham Valley,
and as far as the Natural Bridge in the northern part of Gila County.
In the fall of 1866, the third Arizona Territorial Legislature passed a memorial praising the
volunteers for their outstanding service in hunting and destroying “ the wily and implacable
Apache” during their year of service. The soldiers had often pursued the Apache “ barefoot and
upon half rations” and had inflicted “ greater punishment upon the Apaches than all other troops
in the territory.” Although the financial conditions of the territorial government prohibited
offering the men a bonus, the legislators congratulated the soldiers for a job well done. The
regiment had set a precedent for future United States military subjugation of the Apaches, and
proved the value of Indians as scouts for frontier duty.
Raised to supplement the California Volunteers, whose term of service was ending, the first
Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment compiled an enviable record during its one year of service.
Campaigning from established bases with a minimum of supplies, transportation, and rations,
they struck fear into the stronghold of Apache communities in central Arizona. Commanded by
both Anglo and native officers, these men performed as shock troop, or militia, in one of the
roughest terrain in the Southwest. On foot and by horseback, they traveled cross- country at
night to scout for and attack Apaches wherever they could be found. For a young territory
31
without funds, which was attempting to attract settlers, provide safety for its highways, and
encourage a fledgling mining industry, the Arizona Volunteers brought stability and safety to a
mineral- rich region. Their story deserves to be remembered in the history of the Southwest.
During the following years there were many skirmishes between U. S. troopers and Apache
warriors. However the U. S. Army returned to the West after the end of the Civil War to campaign
against the Indians. As the Apaches had a difficult time holding out against troops, in the spring
of 1871 about 500 came in to Camp Grant to ask for peace. Their most important leader was
Eskiminzin. As it just so happened, there was a young commander at the fort who was
sympathetic to the Apaches’ difficult position. His name was Lieutenant Royal E. Whitman and
Eskiminzin began to consider him his friend.
On December 19, 1872, Fort Grant was established at the foot of Mount Graham by direction of
General Crook. In January of 1873, eleven companies of cavalry and infantry were transferred to
Fort Grant, under the command of Major Brown. They immediately started work on the
construction of a Commissary building, Officer's quarters and a wagon road up the side of Mount
Graham. Troops patrolled southeast Arizona and western New Mexico chasing small marauding
bands of Apache Indians and keeping the peace. Troops from Fort Grant participated in the
military campaign against Geronimo. In 1888, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry were used
in civil duties and chasing train robbers. Starting in 1900, Fort Grant was a collection point for
troops going to the Philippines during the Spanish American War. On October 4, 1905, Captain
Jenkins marched Troop D across the parade grounds for the final time. The troops were
transferred to Fort Huachuca and Fort Grant was left to a caretaker. In 1912, as part of
conferring statehood on the Arizona Territory, the federal government turned over Fort Grant to
the New State to be used as the State Industrial School for Wayward Boys and Girls. In 1968, the
Arizona State Legislature passed a bill making the Fort Grant State Industrial School a part of
the State Department of Corrections. In 1973, Fort Grant became an adult male prison. In
December of 1997, the Arizona State Prison at Fort Grant became the Fort Grant Unit of the
Arizona State Prison Complex
On 30 April 1871 a horrible event occurred that was forever to strain relations between the
Apaches and the white man. On that date, a group of men out of Tucson, many of whom were
Papagos and Mexicans, but their leaders were Am

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180th Field Artillery Regiment
5425 East McDowell Road
P. O. Box 60512
Phoenix, Arizona 85082- 0512
( 602) 267- 2481 DSN 853- 2481
22 February 2002
Pamphlet Historical Activities
Number 870- 5
Arizona Army National Guard
The First One Hundred Years
This Pamphlet is one in the series of historical documents assembled for publication by the 180th
Field Artillery Regiment Association. Recognizing that yesterday and today’s achievement is
tomorrow’s history, these pamphlets document and record significant activities, events and
occurrences in the Arizona Army National Guard and the Arizona Artillery. Questions or
comments should be addressed to the above office.
Compiled and Edited By Colonel ( Ret) John L. Johnson
Associate Editor Colonel ( Ret) Charles G. Kroger, Command Historian
This Pamphlet supersedes all previous editions
2
Tradition, Pride and Commitment
Table of Contents
Page
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Indian Menace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Raising the Arizona Volunteer Infantry
Regiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Arizona Volunteers Begin Duty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Camp Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Discharge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Organized Militia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Spanish American War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Organizing the National Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Border Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
World War I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Growing Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
World War II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Panama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Down Under . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Wakde Sarmi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Noemfoor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Philippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Formatted: Page break before
3
Batangas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
The Bicol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Sorsogon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Camalig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Mount Isarog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Off to Yokohama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Back Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
White Plan, Fire Support Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Desert Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Emergencies on the Home Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Retiring the Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4
Acknowledgements
This Pamphlet covers the one hundred year history of the Arizona Army National Guard through
it’s beginning in 1865 as the First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment through the deactivation
of the 158th Infantry in December 1967. Many significant and historical events probably
occurred that are not noted herein, for those missed, we all must take blame because of poor
records keeping, neglect of recording those events or our ignorance of history as it occurred.
The significant donors of information for this pamphlet must be recognized for the effort and
sacrifice required on their part to research, document and record in the basic contents recorded
herein. Anyone who has ever conducted research through historical records to capture the
background, time, names, places, and events will understand the amount of cussing, blood, sweat
and tears required to accomplish this task.
Special recognition to Mr. Lonnie Edward Underhill for his research and documentation of the
important period of history on the first militia unit in the illustrious lineage of the Arizona Army
National Guard. Recent Arizona historians have said little about the Arizona volunteers of the
First Volunteer Infantry Regiment mustered into service in 1865. Mr. Underhill’s thesis
attempts to make their contribution to the settling of the early Arizona Territory a matter of
record. This thesis was submitted to the History Department, University of Arizona, for his
Master of Arts degree and was based on a hitherto little or unused set of documents. These
documents were drawn from the Arizona Division of Library, Archives, and Public Records,
Arizona Historical Society, University of Arizona Library Special Collections, Arizona State
University Arizona Collection, and the National Archives. The material of the National Archives
included muster rolls, pension records, regimental papers, and pertinent military correspondence
files. The poor condition of many of these records required numerous hours of research with a
six- inch magnifying glass to decipher them.
Colonel Orville A. ( Speedy) Cochran was born on 22 October 1911 in Rifle, Colorado. Colonel
Cochran served in several staff and command assignments in the 158th Infantry and was later
transferred to the Headquarters Staff of the Arizona National Guard, both militarily and as a
State employee. Colonel Cochran served in that assignment until the time of his retirement
whereupon he was appointed as Colonel ( for Life) in the Arizona National Guard. Colonel Cochran
worked in the Adjutant General’s office as Chief Clerk in charge of the File Section prior to
mobilization in 1940. After return from World War II, Colonel Cochran was the Public
Information Officer in the Arizona National Guard Headquarters. He was an outstanding soldier
and gentleman who devoted himself to recording the previously used abbreviated History of the
Arizona National Guard and detailed History of the Arizona Artillery, 1920 – 1955.
Reproduced in its entirety herein is the book, “ The Story of the Bushmasters”, by Roy Lancaster.
In World War II, Mr. Lancaster was one of the “ Selectees” rushed from the draft boards in the
United States to their assignment with the 158th Infantry. As stated in his book, The 158th
Infantry was composed of a cross section of Arizona men; Indians of some twenty- odd tribes,
Mexicans, and native- born Americans of all national descents made up its companies when it
mobilized in 1940. After arriving in Panama in 1942 the 158th Infantry ceased to be exclusively
an Arizona outfit. It became a unit of tough young Americans from every state and every
section, from every occupation and every field. Mr. Lancaster is a member of the Bushmaster
association, and with his book out of print, has authorized the reproduction of his book twice,
once by the Arizona National Guard Historical Society and also by the Bushmaster Association on
the 50th Anniversary of their mobilization for World War II.
5
Thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Robert J. Freuler ( Deceased). Colonel Freuler retired from the
Wisconsin Army National Guard where he served as a Field Artillery Battalion Commander and
senior Staff Officer. He moved to Arizona in 1986 after retiring from American Telephone and
Telegraph ( AT& T) and immediately volunteered to serve as the curator, Arizona Military Museum.
During the eight years that he served in that capacity, he spent hundreds of hours of his own
time researching the history of the early militia and Arizona Guard, covering many of those
periods where little or no information was assembled and recorded.
Particular thanks for the assistance and input furnished by former members of the 480th Field
Artillery Battalion and 180th Artillery, jokingly known as members of the Order of Ancient
Artillerymen. The capturing of written and oral history was an enjoyment, which also became a
remembrance of many good times, bad times and things forgotten. Often the deeds or activities
were embellished, especially if being recorded over a cold beer or two, but later reviewed and
edited in the interest of historical accuracy. Many occurrences recorded during these sessions,
although accurate and historical in nature, were purposely excluded in the interest of propriety
and reverence of the living.
News archives and articles available from newspapers for the time periods, plus government and
private Internet sites, provided vast amounts of information to include particular events, dates
and/ or individuals. Other contributors of information, publications or documents are recognized
in the additional reference publications listed below. Last, but not least, thanks to MSG ( Ret)
Del Taylor for time and effort required in making the files, records, Orders, Morning Reports, etc.
in the Arizona National Guard Records Center available for research and information. Del’s
appreciation of the historical significance of records under his care, plus his willingness to assist,
always made it a pleasure to visit the Records Center and review the past, while researching the
thousands of records maintained in his safekeeping.
I apologize for any areas not researched in greater detail and activities or actions not included,
but this history has become a task never completed. Every day, week or month during the past
two years would bring forth something new or an item missed that adds to the history of the
Arizona Army National Guard and therefore required research and recording. The end comes
when you just finally say, “ That’s it!” - - and hope that another interested person or organization
will update and revise this history sometime in the future.
The following publications are available for reference or additional information:
Thesis, First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment
First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment Genealogy Records
Lonnie E. Underhill
( Above publications available in Arizona Military Museum Library)
Adjutant’s General Reports, 1865 – Present ( those available)
( Arizona Military Museum Library)
Book, Story of the Bushmasters ( Out of print)
Roy Lancaster
Bushmasters, America’s Jungle Warriors ( out of Print)
Anthony Edwards
180th Field Artillery Regiment Historical Pamphlets:
Pamphlet 870- 2, White Plan, Fire Support Subsystem
Pamphlet 870- 3, Exercise Desert Strike, Colorado River War II
Pamphlet 870- 4, The Arizona Artillery
Part I, The Early Years, 1919- 1953
Pamphlet 870- 6, First Arizona Volunteer Regiment of Infantry
6
Introduction
Older than our nation, the National Guard has the longest continuous history of any military
organization in the United States. Its origin traces back to the early 17th century. Early settlers
were quick to recognize their obligation to give part time personal services to the protection of
the life and property they enjoyed. From the homes and farms of individual communities, men
voluntarily joined together to form trained bands and companies. These protective groups, born
of necessity, were strictly local and spontaneous, neighbors joining hands in a common cause.
The oldest National Guard, however, was not formed in the United States. The Puerto Rican
National Guard, a part of the National Guard of the United States, claims as its ancestry the early
militia organized in 1510. It’s first commanding officer was none other than Ponce DeLeon. The
militia fought the Indian wars and with the Spanish troops repelled the attacks by the French,
English and Dutch invaders. The earliest regiments in the United States are the 182d Infantry of
Massachusetts, organized in 1634, known as the “ Old North Regiment,” and the 176th Infantry of
Virginia, organized in 1652. Lieutenant Colonel George Washington later commanded the latter
when they marched out to resist the French in the Ohio River Valley in 1754. That same
regiment during the Revolutionary War had such commanders as Colonel Patrick Henry and
Lieutenant Colonel John Marshall.
It was on 16 August 1824 that the name “ National Guard” was first applied to the State Militia.
On that day, New York units took the title of “ National Guards” in compliment to Lafayette who
was visiting the United States. Lafayette had commanded the National Guard in Paris in 1789.
To most of our citizens, the National Guard is the Militia. The Militia now includes, according to
the Arizona State Code, revised in 1951, every able- bodied citizen of Arizona, both male and
female, between the ages of 18 and 45 years. The organized militia includes the Armed Forces of
the United States, including such reserve units as the National Guard and Organized Reserve of
the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the Air Force. The unorganized militia includes the remainder
of the able bodied persons 18 to 45 years of age.
Most citizens don’t realize that the early history of Arizona can generally be considered military
history. This history would begin with the introduction of the military into this part of the world
following the entry of Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539, the march north by Francisco Vasquz de
Coronado’s Military Expedition in 1540. This expedition explored through Eastern Arizona to
the Grand Canyon and along the Colorado River, to a point just above present day Yuma.
Although he changed the course of history, Coronado died in obscurity at the age of 42. But
today, thanks to an inspired bit of diplomacy on the part of the United States, Don Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado, who searched vainly for the Seven Cities of Cibola, has a monument to his
name, The Coronado National Memorial in Southern Arizona. Continuing on with the settling of
the West, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and of course throughout all of this the Indian Wars,
which lasted until 1886 in the Arizona Territory, all have armed conflict or military significance.
The history of the subjugation of hostile Indians in the southwestern United States ( Arizona)
during the nineteenth century primarily has been fragmented and sketchy because of its
comparatively short duration. It is amazing how little today’s generation know about the early
history of Arizona and the rough and tumble Arizona Territory. Few people recognize or
understand the impact of the Indian Wars in the territory, probably because Cochise or Geronimo
didn’t kill or maim their grandparents, great grandparents or other relatives; most of today’s
Arizona residents came from somewhere else at a much later time.
Throughout the years everyone has read about or watched on TV, the Apache horror and the
Indian raids on the early settlers, the military and movie actor John Wayne. This recorded
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period in our history seems to neglect or minimize many of the significance facts regarding the
impact of the Indian Wars on the settlers and military in early Arizona. The campaigns in Arizona
were fought with minor conflicts and small battles due to the elusiveness and fighting tactics of
the Indian. This era was years of great hardship and turmoil for the early families, with little of
the recognition given to troops and their battles to defeat the hostile Apaches during their
rampage. Everyone knows about Cochise and Geronimo, but who ever heard of Bernard J. D.
Irwin or Will C. Barnes?
The first Medal of Honor awarded by the U. S Military was awarded to Bernard J. D. Irwin,
Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army, for gallantry at Apache Pass, Arizona, 13- 14 February 1861.
Surgeon Irwin was born 24 June 1830, in Ireland and entered service at New York. The Medal
was not issued until 24 January 1894. The citation for the award reads, “ Voluntarily took
command of troops and attacked and defeated the hostile Indians he met on the way. Surgeon
Irwin volunteered to go to the rescue of 2d Lt. George N. Bascom, 7th Infantry, who with 60 men
was trapped by Chiricahua Apaches under Cochise. Irwin and 14 men, not having horses began
the 100- mile march, riding mules. After fighting and capturing Indians, recovering stolen horses
and cattle, he reached Bascom's column and helped break his siege.”
Local residents probably wonder why the Buttes at Papago Park are named " Barnes Butte” and
the U. S. Army Reserve Center on Oak Street is named the “ Will C. Barnes Reserve Center.”
These are named for Will Croft Barnes, Private First Class, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, who was
awarded the Medal of Honor on 8 November 1882. Private First Class Barnes was born in San
Francisco, California in 1858. Growing up in Nevada and Indianapolis, he later returned to San
Francisco. He joined the Signal Corps in 1879 and was assigned to Fort Apache as telegrapher
and operator of the meteorological station. In September 1881 Barnes assisted in the defense of
the fort from an Indian attack while Colonel Carr, Commander of Fort Apache, and most of the
garrison were gone to capture Apache medicine man Nock- aye- Klinney at the Indian village on
Cibeque Creek. The award was for heroism at Fort Apache, Arizona, 11 September 1881, citation
simply reads, “ Bravery in action.” In the spring of 1883, Barnes, by then a Sergeant, received
the medal in a retreat ceremony at Fort Apache. After receiving a medical discharge in 1883, he
began cattle ranching near St. Johns, Arizona Territory. He served in the Arizona Territorial
House of Representatives and accomplished the formation of Navajo County. A member of the U.
S. Geographical Board from 1920- 1930, Barnes spent his later years travelling and writing. His
best- known work is Arizona Place Names, published in 1935. He died in 1936 and is buried in
Arlington National Cemetery.
Leonard Wood, Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army, a name that many should still recognize. He was
awarded the Medal of Honor in the Apache campaign, summer of 1886. Citation reads:
“ Voluntarily carried dispatches through a region infested with hostile Indians, making a journey
of 70 miles in one night and walking 30 miles the next day. Also for several weeks, while in close
pursuit of Geronimo's band and constantly expecting an encounter, commanded a detachment of
Infantry, which was then without an officer, and to the command of which he was assigned upon
his own request.” General Wood made his greatest contributions to the Army and the Nation
while assigned as Chief of Staff. He strengthened the General Staff and firmly established the
Chief of Staff as the senior officer of the Army. Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri is named after
General Wood.
In addition to the award of the Medal of Honor to General Leonard Wood, Surgeon Irwin and
Private First Class Barnes, there was forty- eight other recipients of this Medal for duty during
the Indian Wars in Arizona. These included Sergeant Alchesay, Chief of the White Mountain
Apaches, Indian Scout for General Crook. Sergeant Alchesay’s citation reads, “ Gallant conduct
during campaigns and engagements with Apaches, winter of 1872- 7.”
Arizona’s Regiment of proud tradition was born 2 September 1865 as the First Arizona Volunteer
Infantry Regiment. Later as the First Arizona Infantry Regiment, it was designated as the 158th
Infantry Regiment in 1917 during World War I, reorganized and redesignated the 158th
Regimental Combat Team ( RCT) during World War II. Reactivated in the Arizona National Guard
after World War II, the 158th Infantry ceased to exist 7 December 1967, when it’s troops were
8
reorganized as Military Police and other units required by the United States in revised defense
planning.
In recording this history it is easy to see where the residual strength comes from within the
guard and particularly the Arizona National Guard. As you record the name of an individual as an
officer elected to his position, appointed by the Governor, graduate of Officer Training School, or
by direct commission, you continue to come across the individual in later years as a commander,
senior staff officer, the Adjutant General or even Governor. You might first notice their names
before or during the Spanish American War, Mexican Border Service, World War I or World War II
and still later they continue as an active member for many years after this initial service. Even
today you will notice many of their names on street signs throughout valley communities. The
Arizona National Guard built on those individuals’ experience and knowledge. Whether the
individual was strong, mediocre or weak, their tenure of service provided the ability to build this
great organization on their collective experience.
John L. Johnson
Colonel, AUS Retired
9
The Civil War
When citizens of the United States first entered the Southwest, the Apaches were at first inclined
to consider them as allies against their bitter enemies, the Mexicans. Even though in the 1830s
there had already been clashes with American " scalp hunters", e. g., James Johnson and James
" Don Santiago" Kirker, those Americans were basically operating under authority of the Mexican
flag, and so the Apaches considered such individuals as non- representative of the United States.
Then, of course, came the Mexican War, 1846- 1848. Again, it appeared that the " Americans"
could be Apache allies in their struggle against Mexico.
It wasn't until the 1850s that the United States finally realized that the Apaches were going to
cause serious problems. Apaches continued to raid Mexico, and Mexico consequently put
pressure on the U. S. to cease the raids. Settlers in New Mexico and Arizona, Mexican and
American alike, became particularly insistent that Apache raiding stop. In Arizona by 1857 the
United States finally decided to garrison a post just north of the Sonoran border, near modern-day
Patagonia, Arizona,-- Fort Buchanan. Because the outpost was isolated and difficult to
maintain, it was basically ineffective in stopping raids and was abandoned at the outset of the
Civil War.
On 28 February 1862, Captain Sherod Hunter’s 100- man company of Arizona Rangers, from the
Confederate Army of Texas Volunteers, occupied Tucson. The people of Tucson, sick of raids by
desperados, Mexican bandits and Apaches, received his men cordially and without incident,
though they failed to display any particular devotion to the strange banner that the rebels
carried. Union sympathizers were given the choice of swearing allegiance to the Confederate
States or leaving the territory. Hunter took what supplies he needed at Tucson then proceeded
to the Pima Villages where he arrested a miller named Ammi White and took 1,500 sacks of
wheat. He gave the wheat to the Indians since he didn’t have any wagons to haul it away.
While at the Pima villages Hunter also captured Captain William McCleave and nine men who
were scouting ahead of the California Volunteer Union Army Column. Captain William P.
Calloway and troops under him were sent to rescue Captain McCleave but arrived too late. On
the way, Captain Calloway’s troops came across Confederates destroying hay at Stanwix Station
about 80 miles east of Yuma. Shots were exchanged and a California soldier, Private William
Semmilrogge, was wounded before the rebels retreated. This encounter at Stanwix Station was
not a battle of the size of Gettysburg or Bull Run, but it was the western- most skirmish between
soldiers during the Civil War. From the Pima Villages, Captain Calloway sent two lieutenants
with cavalrymen to capture Confederates still in the area.
At Picacho Pass, about 45 miles northwest of Tucson, Captain Hunter left Sergeant Henry Holmes
in command of nine privates. The mission of these ten men was to warn Captain Hunter of any
attempt by the Union troops to move on Tucson. On 15 April 1862, the two forces met. A fierce
battle was fought that lasted only a few minutes. Lieutenant James Barrett and two Union
privates were killed and three others wounded. No Confederates were killed but two were
wounded and three captured. The remaining Confederates escaped to Tucson. The California
Column moved into Tucson on 20 May 1862 without a shot being fired. Captain Hunter had
departed two weeks earlier, realizing that his small force was no match for the 1800- man
California Column.
The biggest battle of the Civil War in Arizona was fought on 15 July 1862; twenty miles south of
present day Wilcox at Apache Pass. Apaches led by Mangas Coloradas and Cochise ambushed the
second detachment of 126 California Volunteers. As the soldiers approached a spring of water,
10
the Indians fired on them from behind the rocks along the rim of the canyon. The “ Battle of
Apache Pass” was a victory for the troops since they lost only two killed and three wounded.
Estimates of Apache losses vary from 10 to 68. The California Column of Volunteers established
Fort Bowie on its way to New Mexico after a detachment was sent to protect the spring at Puerto
de Dado. This is the fort where field artillery was first used against the Apache at the Battle of
Apache pass in June of 1862. After stubborn resistance, bursting howitzer shells finally dislodged
the Apache. It became the focal point of operations against Geronimo and the Apache. From
1867- 1886 there were constant skirmishes with the Apache renegades Victorio, Nana, Juh,
Geronimo, Loco and Natchez.
One of the earliest large engagements of U. S. troops against Apaches occurred in May 1863. In
that month Lieutenant Thomas T. Tidball from Fort Lowell in Tucson, and a prominent Mexican
citizen of Tucson, Jesús María Elías, led a force that killed fifty Apache warriors on Aravaipa
Creek. Still another important battle took place in January 1864 between Yavapais and Apaches
under a leader known as Paramucka. This was the infamous engagement at " Bloody Tanks." Some
historians think it happened near what is now the town of Miami, Arizona, while others feel it
took place in Fish Creek Canyon in the Superstitions.
King Woolsey, leader of an American expedition of civilians out of Prescott, requested a meeting
with Indian leaders. Six responded and came out the mountains to talk. After all were seated,
Woolsey signalled his men to kill every Indian possible. So many Indians were killed that the
stream where the engagement took place ran red with the blood of those who died-- thus the
name " Bloody Tanks." It was a horrifying precursor of what was to come.
The Arizona Territory was a remote land in 1864. The principal population centers were in
Tucson and in the Santa Cruz Valley, along the Colorado north of Yuma, and in the newly opened
gold fields in the Prescott vicinity. All three regions owed their continued existence to mining
activity. Agricultural activity included supplying cattle, sheep and basic foods to meet local
need of the miners and soldiers.
The California Volunteers had occupied Arizona in 1862. Their mission had been to retake the
forts in Arizona and New Mexico, drive out Confederate forces and reopen the southern mail
route, which had been abandoned at the outbreak of the Civil War. As prospectors and settlers
were attracted to Arizona by recent gold strikes, hostile Indians pounced on them at every turn.
The California Volunteers were thinly spread and unable to provide protection along the major
wagon routes, let alone near the new mining camps. The need for additional military forces
became apparent soon after creation of the new territory. While still in the East, Governor John
A. Gurley and Chief Justice John N. Goodwin took steps to control the Indian menace in Arizona.
In early March of 1863, Gurley and Goodwin petitioned President Abraham Lincoln for authority
to raise two volunteer regiments; one of infantry and one of mounted riflemen, in their home
states of Ohio and Maine, respectively, for service in Arizona.
Governor Gurley and Chief Justice Goodwin suggested raising a third regiment from California.
At the expiration of the enlistment of these volunteers, which would be for three years or, the
end of the Civil War, the soldiers could be discharged in Arizona with the hope that they might
settle there. In this way within a few years, the territory would have sufficient population to
protect itself without special assistance from the Federal government. The territorial leaders
thought this military force in Arizona would provide security for emigrants’ enroute to the
pacific coast and strengthen military forces already stationed there. Also, a strong force would
help establish law and order and promote the development of Arizona’s mineral wealth. General
Samuel P. Heintzelman endorsed Gurley and Goodwin’s petition to Lincoln. Heintzelman, an
Army officer stationed in Washington, D. C., who had served at Fort Yuma, California, agreed with
the Arizona officials that 3,000 soldiers would be necessary to repel hostile Indian attacks in the
new territory. He knew a good deal about mining in Arizona. Heintzelman stated that three
years earlier several mining companies had been successfully operating in Arizona, but the
Apaches had by constant “ theft, murder and robbery compelled them to abandon the country
with the loss of all their machinery, improvements and property.”
11
The discovery of gold in central Arizona in the spring of 1863 called attention to the new
territory. As news of the discovery spread through the Southwest, prospectors rushed to the new
diggings. As they fanned out in all directions, they encountered hostile Indians. In October of
1863, General James H. Carleton, commanding the Military Department of New Mexico,
established the Military District of Northern Arizona. This district contained all of the area
north of the Gila River and east of the Colorado River, except the area occupied by Fort Mohave.
In December he sent California volunteers to establish Fort Whipple near the strike, but they
were unfamiliar with the habits of the Apaches and failed to protect the growing population of
miners and prospectors. Fort Whipple was established in November 1863 one- mile northeast of
Prescott in the Chino Valley. Cavalry and Infantry soldiers stationed there participated in many
Indian engagements. The Whipple Barracks became the Headquarters for the Military
Department of Arizona on April 15, 1870. The post was General George Crook’s District of
Arizona headquarters in 1882. Centrally located in the Territory, the fort had a major influence
on all Indian affairs in the region.
The Indian Menace
Status as a territory began with the signature of President Abraham Lincoln on the Congressional
Act of 24 February 1863. Governor John N. Goodwin and several of the Arizona territorial office
holders arrived at Fort Whipple on 22 January 1864. Soldiers escorting Goodwin had killed an
Indian enroute to the new territory. This event provided Goodwin with first- hand knowledge of
the dangers of the Apache menace which Americans living in Arizona had begun describing as the
most pressing obstacle in their efforts to settle the new territory. Arizona territorial officials
reached the Whipple vicinity in January of 1864. The official party had traveled west via Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas and Santa Fe, where a detachment of New Mexico and Missouri Volunteers
under Lieutenant Colonel Jose F. Chaves joined them. On his arrival, Goodwin explored for a site
to locate the capital. By summer he had located a capital at Prescott, near Whipple, and ordered
a census be taken. He learned that Arizona had a population of 4,573 persons, excluding Indians,
living chiefly in three regions. The Tucson Area, comprising the land south of the Gila River,
contained 2,377 persons; the La Paz and Colorado River area contained 1,157 persons; and the
Prescott area, comprising the remainder of the territory, contained 1,039 persons. Miners and
prospectors were active in southern Arizona, along the Colorado River between La Paz and Fort
Mohave, and in central Arizona around Fort Whipple.
Major L. A. Armistead originally established Fort Mohave as Camp Colorado on April 19, 1859.
Lieutenant Edward Beale recommended that they station the post on the east bank of the
Colorado River near the head of the Mojave Valley. The Fort was established to provide a shelter
for emigrants to California and a base for operations against the Mojave Indians. The Post was
renamed Fort Mohave on April 28, 1859, abandoned on May 28, 1861 by order of Brigadier
General Edwin V. Sumner for fear of the Confederate forces in the area. The buildings were
burned down. May 19, 1863, the post was re- garrisoned and was assigned to protect the travelers
along the Mojave and Prescott road and to cultivate friendly relations with the Indians; it is now
part of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation.
Within six months after locating the territorial capital at Prescott, Governor Goodwin turned his
attention to the larger problems of providing adequate protection for settlers and miners
throughout the territory. The California Volunteers had located several posts in Arizona in 1862,
but they were thinly spread and could not control the serious threat on life and property by
hostile Indians. The need for additional military forces had developed in May of 1863 with the
discovery of gold in central Arizona.
Governor Goodwin and other territorial officials made repeated requests for increased Federal
protection, but assistance came slowly. Ranchers in the vicinity of Prescott were particularly
vulnerable to Apache raids the previous December; Indians had stolen a large number of cattle
near Canon Springs, which were destined, for sale to miners. Two months later, fifty Pinal
Apache raided the Agua Fria Ranch, owned by King S. Woolsey. The Indians hit the ranch at mid-day
and drove off thirty head of cattle. They took all the animals except a yoke of oxen hitched
to a plow and killed one or two others at the ranch. Woolsey was not home at the time.
12
Reporting the incident, the Prescott Weekly Arizona Miner, in early March of 1864, stated that
Woolsey probably would organize a company “ to hunt and punish the thieves . . . he is one of our
most daring and skillful Indian fighters, and believes fully ‘ in the extermination policy.’” Indian
attacks spread. Several days after the attack on the Agua Fria Ranch, they surprised miners in
Randall’s District on the Hasssayampa River south of Prescott. They killed five Mexicans and
three Americans and drove about twenty miners from their claims. When the miners reported
this attack to Secretary of the Territory Richard C. McCormick, he requested the commander at
Fort Whipple to detach twenty California Volunteers to patrol briefly in Randall’s District in case
the Indians returned.
When the volunteers prepared to return to Whipple, more than 100 miners signed a petition
requesting a permanent military force be assigned to Randall’s District. The District, they said,
lay in an area rich in mineral wealth and agriculture in which they had expended a great deal of
labor and money in opening claims and starting farms. The area suffered Indian attacks because
of its isolation from other settlements. The petitioners asked Governor Goodwin to station
permanently a small force of twenty to thirty soldiers in Randall’s District as a base of operations
in the neighborhood. In this manner, the miners could complete work on their claims and
hopefully organize to defend themselves against the Indians. The depredations continued. A
petition came from the Lynx Creek District. The citizens felt they were in constant danger from
Indian attack and demanded that immediate measures be taken to ensure their safety. They
requested Goodwin to take steps to keep open their lines of communication and supply, and to
take steps to “ subdue the Indians and render the country safe and habitable.” A few days later,
Indians overran the Sheldon Ranch twenty- five miles south of Prescott, drove off a dozen cattle
and killed a herder, a Mr. Cosgrove. Twenty- five soldiers went to the ranch, but they failed to
locate the Indians or the cattle. The commander at Fort Whipple furnished supplies for a group
of soldiers to join the search, but the Indians had disappeared with all the cattle.
In late March of 1864, Governor Goodwin announced his determination to make Arizona safe and
promised to subdue the “ ruthless barbarians, whatever it may cost.” He appointed King Woolsey
as his military aide, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and dispatched him on an expedition
with nearly 100 men, including twenty who led the supply train, looking for hostile Indians. The
men received rations and supplies at Fort Whipple, and enlisted a large number of Maricopa
Indians to accompany them. The Maricopa were eager to strike the Pinal Apaches “ a blow which
will deter them from farther [ sic] depredations in this vicinity.” Wooley’s expedition left his
Agua Fria Ranch on the night of March 31 and stayed in the field until April 17. In two fights
with Apaches, the party killed thirty and wounded fourteen Indians.
In June 1864, Woolsey again left Prescott with volunteers to scout Apache Indian Territory. Near
the end of June he discovered a creek whose headwaters were in the Pinal Mountains. He
therefore named the creek, " Pinal Creek." He made his main camp there and called it
" Wheatfields," as Apache Indians raised crops there along the banks of Pinal Creek. The area is
still called Wheatfields today. Meanwhile, Colonel Edwin Rigg at Fort Goodwin, about 60 miles to
the east, detailed Major Thomas Blakeney to meet Woolsey at Wheatfields. When Blakeney
arrived at what is now Six Shooter Canyon, he found a 14- year- old Apache boy who said he
wished to give up his life as an Indian, as it was too hard. Blakeney took the boy, and, of course,
his relatives came looking for him two days later. Major Blakeney refused to give the boy up.
The next day, this same boy went out into the fields at Wheatfields to look for food. The boy was
taken back by his people and this " kidnapping" outraged Blakeney. On that same day Woolsey
arrived back again at Wheatfields from an expedition to Salt River Canyon. Major Blakeney and
Woolsey's men were ordered to search out any male Apaches they could and to kill them. They
then destroyed the Apache fields. Great bitterness arose among the Apaches as a result of this
fiasco, and even Colonel Rigg was disgusted by the affair. He knew that there could no longer be
any prospect of peace.
Arizona territorial officials finally convinced the War Department that additional troops were
needed in Arizona to fight the Apaches. On February 10, 1864, Governor Goodwin had written
President Lincoln a letter expressing concern over the Indian situation. The success of the new
territory depended heavily upon curbing hostile Indian activity particularly in the mining and
13
ranching regions, he said. Escorts were needed to transport the mail and guard parties exploring
the territory. The richest and most extensive mineral regions seemed to be to the east and
south of Prescott and on the San Francisco and Salt Rivers. Indian attacks on prospecting
parties and travelers had spread to the south, and herders everywhere guarded their livestock
with utmost vigilance. In conclusion, Goodwin requested permission to organize a regiment from
within the territory to replace the California Volunteers whose enlistments would end between
August and September of that year. The Governor suggested native Arizonans who were familiar
with the country and Apache warfare. He thought native Arizonans would be far more efficient
than soldiers recruited elsewhere.
The territorial legislature also drafted a memorial to the United States Congress; the memorial
requested an appropriation of $ 250,000 to promote a war against the Apaches. The legislature
felt the depredations of the Apaches were the “ only barrier to a speedy settlement” of the
territory. The workers of Governor Goodwin asked several congressional and military leaders for
letters endorsing his request. Those contacted included Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton,
General Robert C. Schenck, Chairman of the House Military Committee, Major General Henry W.
Halleck, General- in- Chief of the Army, and General Carleton, commanding the Department of
New Mexico. In his endorsement, General Carleton supported the Governor’s request to raise
local troops, but doubted that “ an entire volunteer regiment could be raised.” Instead, Carleton
suggested that more troops were needed in Arizona, but stated emphatically: “ Until the Navajo
War is off my hands, ( soldiers) cannot be sent ( from New Mexico).” General Carleton’s
endorsement of Governor Goodwin’s request reached the War Department and the office of
Provost Marshal General James B. Fry on April 11. On April 16, 1864, the War Department
approved Goodwin’s request to raise troops in Arizona. General Fry authorized the raising of one
regiment of volunteer infantry in the Arizona Territory to serve for three years or for the
duration of the Civil War. The Department of the Pacific, rather than the Department of New
Mexico, which General Carleton had preferred, would handle the recruitment, organization and
muster of the regiment. General- in- Chief Halleck concurred in General Fry’s action. However,
the War Department held up the authorization until it had shifted military jurisdiction of Arizona
from General Carleton to the Department of the Pacific.
Several weeks before the War Department approved the Arizona regiment, Governor Goodwin had
written Secretary of State William H. Seward requesting a ninety- day leave to visit the new
commander of the Department of the Pacific in San Francisco. He had learned from the
California officers in Arizona that ten new volunteer regiments were being organized in California
and that one regiment might be sent to Arizona. Goodwin hoped that any new troops sent to the
territory might be commanded and staffed with officers who had lived in Arizona and were
acquainted with Indian warfare. Goodwin’s request was denied and the matter of an Arizona
volunteer regiment was shelved for the time being.
When the new Arizona legislature met in the fall of 1864, it passed two Acts to curb the Indian
depredations. On November 7, Governor Goodwin signed “ An Act Authorizing a Loan on the
Faith and Credit of the Territory to Inaugurate and Pay the Expenses of a Campaign against the
Apache Indians.” By this Act the legislature would seek to raise $ 100,000 in Indian War Bonds,
to be repaid on January 1, 1885. The legislator’s would try to negotiate the loan at eight per
cent in gold at par value and at ten per cent annual interest. The bonds would be issued in
amounts of $ 50, $ 100, $ 250, and $ 1,000. A board of territorial commissioners empowered to
arrange for the sale of the bonds, included Governor Goodwin and legislators King S. Woolsey and
John G. Capron. The legislature also approved “ An Act Authorizing the Raising of Rangers.” By
this Act, signed on November 9, Governor Goodwin could raise six companies, not to exceed 600
men, for Indian service. These so- called rangers were to be under the direct command of the
territorial governor. Expenses incurred on Indian campaigns would be paid from monies received
from the sale of the territorial bonds.
The working of the mines, the establishment of farms, and the development of the territory
depended upon the subjugation of the “ barbarous foe so long a terror of the settlers” of Arizona.
The board of territorial commissioners would use this money to conduct the war upon the
Apaches then in progress. The United States Congress did not grant this request. Arizona
14
officials also learned that a territorial government could not obligate itself through local bonds to
support a militia, and the act was repealed. No bonds were sold.
The Indian menace continued unabated. Prospectors, farmers, ranchers, and territorial officials
all sensed the need to enlarge the military force in Arizona. But, the Federal government was
deeply committed to fighting the Civil War and lines of communication between Arizona and
Washington were extremely long and slow.
Raising the Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Approval to raise a regiment of Arizona Volunteers came from the War Department in the spring
of 1865. The recruitment of troops in Arizona had been delayed from April of 1864 to February
of the next year while the Army reorganized its military departments in the West. On receiving
proper authority from Washington, Arizona Governor Goodwin set into motion his plan for
raising a regiment of five companies of native soldiers. Between September 2 and November 3,
1865, Federal mustering officers swore into service for one- year, approximately 350 men from
the local Mexican, Pima and Maricopa populations. The soldiers were assigned to permanent duty
soon after they were mustered.
In reorganizing the military department in the West, the War Department did transfer the
Arizona Territory from the Department of New Mexico to the Military Division of the Pacific. The
Pacific Division included the Department of the Columbia and the Department of California, the
latter commanded by Major General Irvin McDowell. The Department of California now included
the Military District of Arizona. In February of 1865, Provost Marshal General Fry in
Washington, D. C. authorized McDowell to raise a regiment of volunteer infantry in Arizona for
service there. Recruits could enlist for periods of one to three years. On February 25, General
McDowell appointed Brigadier General John S. Mason to command the new District of Arizona.
In early May of 1865, while conferring in Los Angeles with Generals Mason and McDowell,
Governor Goodwin learned that Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton had suspended all military
recruiting, anticipating the end of the Civil War. On May 3, Goodwin and Mason sent a telegram
to the War Department asking if the suspension affected Arizona. Secretary of War Stanton
replied that the order exempted the Arizona regiment. The unit could be mustered into Federal
service by July of that year, or as soon as the volunteer companies comprised between eighty
and ninety- seven enlisted men and three officers. On learning the good news, Goodwin left for
Arizona in late May with plans to call up the regiment.
At Prescott, The Governor moved quickly with the recruiting. He appointed William H. Garvin, of
Prescott, as Adjutant General of the Arizona Volunteers, charging him with handling all official
correspondence involving the new regiment. He then selected men who were well- known in the
territory to serve as recruiting officers for six companies designated as A, B, C, D, E, and F.
Recruiting for Company A would occur in Yavapai, Mohave, and northern Gila Valley and central
Arizona. Companies B and C would come from the Gila Valley and Central Arizona. Recruiters
would seek men for Company D from the Tucson area of Pima County. Companies E and F would
be raised in southern Pima County along the Santa Cruz River and in the mining regions to the
east of Tubac.
Goodwin asked Robert Postle, a farmer living near Fort Whipple to raise Company A within
ninety days in Yavapai, Mohave and Yuma counties. Postle would serve, as a second lieutenant
during the recruitment period and later would command the company with the rank of captain.
Postle did not relish his task and on July 29, after having recruited only a few men, he resigned.
Primitivo Cervantes, a miner from Prescott, assumed his duties. Cervantes enlisted thirty- five
men from the Fort Whipple vicinity. Cervantes sent the men to First Lieutenant Charles Curtis,
Company D, Fifth United States Infantry, at Whipple to await induction into Federal service.
Twenty- five of the thirty- five men were Mexican born; many were from the Mexican State of
Sonora, nine were from Hermosillo, the capital city. The remaining seven men indicated their
origins as Germany, Ireland, England, Sweden, California and Illinois.
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Thomas Ewing, a teamster at the Pima Villages, agreed to recruit Maricopa Indians from that
vicinity to fill Company B. Ninety- seven Maricopas from the area around Maricopa Wells
volunteered for duty. Six more later joined after the Maricopas had been serving at the newly
established Fort McDowell. All 103 Indians gave their birthplace as Maricopa Wells. Governor
Goodwin named John D. Walker, who also resided at the Pima Villages, to recruit Pima Indians
for Company C. Walker had been a sergeant in the California Volunteers and had seen service in
Arizona. Walker enlisted ninety- four Pimas from the Pima Villages.
On June 13, Governor Goodwin authorized James Lee, flour and saw mill operator at Tucson, to
recruit men from Pima County for Company D. Because Lee experienced great difficulty in
obtaining rations from the Army to subsist the few men he had recruited, he disbanded them and
returned to his mill. Goodwin named no replacement for Lee and Company D was never
organized.
Hiram S. Washburn, a trader living in the Patagonia mining region in southern Pima County,
agreed to raise Company E at Tubac. From the few records written to or by Washburn, he began
work on June 24 in the Santa Cruz Valley. The next month, he reported to Goodwin that he
expected to have 100 men at Tubac by mid- August ready for induction. Washburn proudly
predicted his recruits would be of the “ first order in the art of Apache hunting”. Washburn also
selected officers for Company E. On July 6, he appointed Manuel Gallegos, formerly of New
Mexico, as second lieutenant and on August 14, Oscar F. Hutton, a mining superintendent at the
Mowry Mine, as first lieutenant. Lieutenant Gallegos had gained considerable experience fighting
Apaches and familiarity with many Apache haunts in southeastern Arizona. In addition to
Spanish, he spoke the Apache dialect. Washburn reported to Governor Goodwin that Lieutenant
Gallegos had earned the complete confidence of the recruits, two of whom were his own sons.
Washburn thought recruiting men of Mexican descent for Apache service would promote amity
and mutual confidence between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican recruits were in
Washburn’s opinion equal, if not superior, to any others he knew for Apache campaigning.
Mexicans never before had had such an opportunity to avenge themselves on the Apaches. In
July, Lieutenant Gallegos began recruiting men for Company E. He recruited at least twenty- six
of his recruits in Bacuachi, Sonora. By August 21 the company had ninety- six men. On
September 1, Washburn wrote inquiring why a mustering officer from San Francisco had not
arrived to induct his men into Federal service.
As was the case at Fort Whipple, Washburn temporarily sent his recruits to the commander of a
local unit. For Company E, this was Second Lieutenant William L. Innes, Seventh Infantry,
California Volunteers, stationed at Tubac. At Tubac, the men erected their own quarters, but the
lack of adequate shelter and blankets caused most of them to develop fevers and other illnesses.
On August 23, Washburn moved his recruits to Fort Mason, near Calabasas, fifteen miles south
on the Santa Cruz River. When the United States took possession of the territory south of the
Gila River in 1853 as a result of the Gadsden Purchase, there was a Mexican fort near Calabasas.
In June 1856 Dragoons under Major Enoch Steen marched from Tucson and occupied the old
fort. Within a few months these troops were removed to Fort Buchanan. It was formally
occupied by U. S. troops a second time with Union troops recruited near Santa Barbara,
California, led by Captain Thomas Young. This First Battalion of Native Cavalry moved into the
old fort on August 21, 1865, and named it Fort Mason for General John S. Mason of the
California Volunteers, Military Commander of the District of Arizona, 1865- 1866. These men
had been stationed at Tubac, but the drenching rains “ soon engendered fevers” and the move was
made to Fort Mason. The name was changed to Camp McKee on September 6, 1866. Here the
men again constructed shelters, and ten to twenty recruits were detailed daily to the
commanding officer to prepare adobe bricks for the post headquarters. Sickness spread and
Washburn often had difficulty in filling his work quotas. Continued illness among the soldiers
caused the camp to be abandoned on October 1, 1866, when the troops were shifted to old Fort
Buchanan.
Washburn’s recruits continued to suffer from a lack of clothing, from inadequate shelter and
from insufficient food. Because the Federal government had made no allowances for recruiting,
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he used his own personal credit to make purchases at Tubac. He was never reimbursed for
expenses incurred during July and August for his men. The volunteers had no cooking utensils
and but half a dozen mess pans. The company had only four axes and two spades with which to
construct shelters for protection from the frequent rainstorms. Arms and ammunition were
promised, but none had arrived. Washburn dramatically described his men as “ destitute” in his
letters to Governor Goodwin. Many fell sick or succumbed to illness by “ eating crude fruit and
sleeping on the wet ground without blankets.” During late August, he informed Goodwin that he
had spent fifty dollars for food and medicine that “ ought to have been furnished . . . from the
hospital, and for which as yet no redress is promised.” The men received no medical attention
unless they were confined to the hospital, and only two men had been entitled to hospital care at
Tubac. More than seventy men were doctoring themselves with herbs and roots, leaving camp
duty to be performed by “ the wellest ( sic) of the sick.” Although Company E received a small
amount of clothing in late October, Washburn noted that the sickly and ragged condition of the
men made them the “ laughing stock of their countrymen far and near.” A total of ninety- seven
men enlisted in Company E at Tubac and at Fort Mason. Only three recruits were from the
United States. The remainder were born in Sonora: twenty- two came from Arispe, sixteen from
Bacauchi and eight from Fronteras.
With Company E filled, Washburn turned to raising men for Company F from the mining region
east of Tubac. Although the recruiting proceeded more slowly than he anticipated, he stated
confidently to Governor Goodwin that he could fill the company before the Federal mustering
officer reached southern Arizona. He recommended as second lieutenant for the new company
one Robert Medina, whom he regarded as an “ old experienced Apache fighter,” but Medina
decided not to serve in Company F. Washburn turned over thirty- two recruits for Company F to
Lieutenant Innes at Tubac. Only one man was from the United States. The others were born in
Sonora, principally in the cities of Magdelena, Hermosillo, Santa Cruz, Oriz and Gyamas.
In the early fall of 1865, Federal induction of the Arizona Volunteers began. First Lieutenant
William W. Tompkins, Third Infantry, mustered the first volunteers at Maricopa Wells. On
September 2, Tompkins mustered ninety- four Maricopas into Company B. Lieutenant Innes
added two men to the company on December 18 and First Lieutenant Samuel L. Barr, Fifth
Infantry, who served as assistant commissary of musters for the Arizona Territory, mustered
seven more on May 16, 1866. The total number mustered into Company B eventually was 103
enlisted men. At full strength, Company B consisted of five sergeants, eight corporals, eighty-four
privates and six of unknown rank that were probably privates. Governor Goodwin appointed
Thomas Ewing as first lieutenant and Charles Riedt as second lieutenant of Company B. Ewing,
age twenty- eight, and Riedt, age forty, were mustered into federal service on September 2. Six
days later, Lieutenant Colonel Clarence E. Bennett, First Cavalry, California Volunteers,
commanding at Fort McDowell, recommended that Riedt be promoted to the rank of captain in
Company B. Lieutenant Riedt spoke the language of the Maricopas fluently and Bennett
considered him to be a competent and efficient officer. For all intents and purposes, lieutenant
Ewing commanded the company from the beginning. However, on November 11, Juan
Chevereah, Chief of the Maricopas, was appointed captain of Company B, but he assumed non-military
duties. On August 8, 1866, Ewing was officially named to command Company B, a
position that he had occupied since his induction into Federal service.
Lieutenant Tompkins also inducted eighty- nine men, Pima Indians, into Company C on
September 2. On May 14, 1866, at Sacaton, Lieutenant Barr added five men. Company C
eventually included ninety- four enlisted men and contained five sergeants, eight corporals and
eighty- one privates. Officers in Company C included Captain J. Ross Browne, age forty, an
Indian agency inspector from California and writer who was appointed on December 21, 1865.
Browne did not serve with the Arizona Volunteers. He reported to Major Robert S. Williamson.
Chief Engineer, Department of California, San Francisco, for topographical assignment. Captain
Browne was discharged from service on April 1, 1866. Other officers included First Lieutenant
John D. Walker, age twenty- seven, and Second Lieutenant William A. Hancock, age thirty- four.
John N. Coster, age thirty, formerly a first lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry, California
Volunteers, and an aide- de- camp to Major General McDowell, was captain of the company from
17
April 1 to June 13, 1866, but he did not serve with the company either. First Lieutenant John
Walker filled the position of captain of the company on June 20. On June 21, Lieutenant
Hancock became first lieutenant, and Sergeant Antonio Azul, age thirty and chief of the Pimas,
assumed the position of second lieutenant on August 1. From the date of his muster into
service, Walker had commanded the company. Upon being inducted into service, Companies B
and C reported to Colonel Bennett, commanding at Fort McDowell. Bennett sent uniforms to the
volunteers at Maricopa Wells. Each Indian soldier received a blue blouse trimmed in red for the
Maricopas and blue for the Pimas, one pair of blue pants, one pair of shoes and one yard of
flannel for a headdress. Although both Pimas and Maricopas furnished their own horses, they
received infantry pay and fed their horses at their own expense.
On October 7, 1865, at Fort Whipple, Lieutenant Tompkins mustered Company A into Federal
Service. Second Lieutenant Cervantes commanded this company, containing Anglos and twenty-nine
Mexicans from Prescott. No other officers were commissioned in Company A. Lieutenant
Cervantes reached a site on the Clear Fork of the Verde with Company A in late October. This
outpost, called Camp Lincoln, also on the Verde River fifty miles east of Prescott, had been
established to protect neighboring farmers on the Verde from Apache depredations. Cervantes
moved the site of the outpost one mile north of the Verde River and Beaver Creek Junction in
Yavapai County. The camp was actively employed in offensive operations against the Apaches.
During the next two months Cervantes sent many scouting expeditions into the nearby
mountains.
Early in November, mustering officers arrived in southern Arizona to induct Companies E and F
into Federal service. Lieutenant Tompkins mustered ninety- seven enlisted men into Company E
on November 2, at Calabasas, near Fort Mason. Later on June 15, 1866, at skull Valley
southwest of Fort Whipple, Lieutenant Barr added two more men to the unit. Company E
contained a bugler, five sergeants, eight corporals, and eighty- five privates. Company officers
included Captain Hiram S. Washburn, age forty- five, First Lieutenant John M. Ver Mehr, age
twenty- two, and Second Lieutenant Manuel Gallegos, age forty- five. Ver Mehr, who had come to
Arizona from California in 1860, served as aide to General Mason and never joined Company E at
Camp Lincoln. He resigned his commission on June 27, 1866. Lieutenant Tompkins inducted
thirty- two men into Company F on November 3 at Calabasas. The company consisted of one
sergeant, three corporals, and twenty- eight privates. Second Lieutenant Oscar F. Hutton, the
commander, continued recruiting men for the company with the goal of reaching a complement
of at least eighty men.
On December 4, 1865, Captain Washburn received orders to move Companies E and F from Fort
Mason to Fort Whipple. That night six men deserted. The next morning, the company started
north with nearly a third of its number on the sick list. Baggage and provisions were carried in
wagons, but the column set out with the sick straggling along as best they could. The soldiers
reached Tucson on December 8, Maricopa Wells on December 14, Wickenburg on December 22,
and Fort Whipple on December 29, a journey of 183 miles in twenty- five days. Most of the
soldiers had improved in health, but two died enroute to Fort Whipple. The men suffered from
the bitter cold weather. As there were no quarters available for them when they reached Fort
Whipple, they had to construct makeshift shelters. Washburn described the men as “ truly
pitiable.”
By late December of 1865, the Arizona Volunteers were either enroute to or already at their duty
stations. The newly inducted volunteers had endured many hardships during the muster period
and during the march to their designated posts. Companies B and C at Maricopa Wells were the
first assigned to duty. On September 4, 1865, Company C, Pimas, left Maricopa Wells with
Colonel Bennett’s command of California Volunteers to establish a fort on the Verde River.
Bennett’s troops cleared a wagon road from Maricopa Wells to the site selected for the new post.
Company B, Maricopas, arrived at the site a few days later. Both companies helped construct
Fort McDowell to serve as a buffer against Apache raids on farms along the Verde and Salt Rivers.
The California Volunteers originally established Fort McDowell on September 7, 1865 on the west
bank of the Rio Verde seven miles above the junction of the Verde with the Salt River. It was
created to combat the local Indians of the surrounding mountains and was intended to be one of
18
the most solidly built posts in the Territory, but rains washed it away. The Camp was first called
Campo Verde and is also erroneously indicated as Fort Badger. It was renamed Camp McDowell
after Major General Irwin McDowell. The Fort Commanded a number of the more important trails
that served the Apache of central Arizona and it was a place of embarkation for many expeditions
to the east against the Tonto Apache. The Maricopas and Pimas subsequently campaigned
against Apaches north and east of McDowell.
On January 2, 1866, Captain Washburn received orders to move Company E to Camp Lincoln,
and take charge of the camp. On arriving at the second Camp Lincoln on January 16, 1866,
Washburn directed Company A and Company E to build brush shelters and to prepare for
scouting into the surrounding area to search for Apache camps. The trip from Prescott had
taken longer than expected because Washburn’s men had to move heavy loads of equipment and
supplies with broken down mules over a mountain trail. Companies A and E scouted the
mountains in all directions form Camp Lincoln. The Camp was renamed Camp Verde on
November 23, 1868. The post was moved in 1871 to higher ground a mile south to improve the
poor condition of the camp and was renamed Fort Verde on April 5, 1879.
From Whipple, Lieutenant Hutton moved Company F to an outpost in Skull Valley near Date
Creek, southwest of the fort. Camp McPherson would be established here on January 23, 1867.
It was created to protect travelers on the road from La Paz to Prescott. The volunteers in
Company F occasionally scouted for Apaches, but they usually escorted wagon trains along the
Prescott- LaPaz road. The post was moved north 25 miles and renamed Camp Skull Valley in
March of 1867. On May 11, 1867, the camp was returned to its original location and renamed
Camp Date Creek. Of the thirty men that had left southern Arizona, only eleven were well
enough for duty. Nearly half of the men had no shoes, and had wrapped old rags around their
feet. Many of them had not a “ shirt on their body nor any drawers at all,” because they had
received no clothing since being in service. Of the number sick, eight or ten were considered in
serious condition, suffering from ague, fever, and “ the sickening condition of their feet and legs.”
Nearly all had severe coughs. The men knew little about their firearms, which they had received
the day before they left southern Arizona.
Even before the companies were inducted, problems had beset the Arizona Volunteers. As early
as September of 1865, General Mason, commanding the District of Arizona, received an order
directing him to suspend recruiting as the War Department wished to reduce the number of
recruits brought into Federal service. Mason did not act on the order immediately. Then in
early October, Adjutant General Edward D. Townsend amended the order, stating that Lieutenant
General Ulysses S. Grant had authorized the Arizona Companies already mustered into service to
be retained until further orders, but “ prohibited the muster of any more.” On November 30, the
mustering officer at Fort Mason finally received an order from General Mason suspending further
recruiting. Colonel Charles W. Lewis, the post commander, halted the muster for Company F,
keeping only those inducted on November 3. At that time, Lieutenant Hutton had increased the
size of the company to eighty- five men. At Whipple, Lieutenant Cervantes had raised a similar
number of recruits for Company A, but none were mustered after November 6, the day he
received the Mason order.
Later in March of 1866, when General McDowell visited Arizona, he became aware of the
problems caused by the suspension order. For example, the previous December recruiters at Fort
McDowell enrolled several Pima and Maricopa volunteers but because of the order they had never
been mustered. In one case a principal sub- chief in Company C had been dropped from the
service, and this had caused dissent among the Pimas. McDowell recommended to General
Mason that all persons be mustered as of the date they actually began service in the regiment.
McDowell’s superior, General Henry W. Halleck, commanding the Division of the Pacific, agreed.
Halleck ordered all men enrolled at the time of the receipt of the August suspension order be
mustered into Federal service as of the date of their enlistment. Special Order 44, May 11, 1866,
District of Arizona, mustered five men of Company C and seven of Company B at Wickenburg on
May 14 and 16 by Lieutenant Barr. Special Order 45, May 13, 1866, directed Barr to muster on
June 15 two men of Company E who had been serving at Skull Valley with Company F.
19
After nearly three years of petitions by the governor, military leaders, and settlers in Arizona,
relief from the Apache menace seemed to be at hand. The volunteer regiment of five companies
consisted of just over 350 native Arizonans and nine officers. The volunteers were placed in
service just as Apache raiding was reaching new heights in central Arizona. Their mission was
clear: destroy Apache camps, crops, and supplies and kill all that resisted.
Arizona Volunteers Begin Duty
The Arizona Volunteers fought several different Apache groups. The Pimas and Maricopas sought
out Tonto Apaches in the region to the north of Fort McDowell. Numbering as many as fifty
persons, these bands lived in huts and planted crops along mountain streams. On several
occasions, the volunteers captured horses that they identified as having been stolen earlier from
their own villages. On one expedition, they killed a very large Indian, who had in his possession
a “ fine American rifle.” The soldiers at Camp Lincoln found Apaches living in primitive caves
and cliffs. At Skull Valley, the soldiers encountered Apache Mojaves, who boldly stopped wagon
trains along the Prescott- La Paz road. Armed variously with bows and arrows and rifles, they
demanded horses and mules.
The first foray by Arizona Volunteers, Companies B and C from Fort McDowell, was against
Apaches on September 8, 1865. Maricopa and Pima volunteers commanded by Lieutenant Riedt
accompanied Colonel Bennett’s California Volunteers on a scout northeast into the Tonto Basin
in search of Apache rancheria, or camps. Seven days later, after traveling some 110 miles, an
advance party of Company B surprised an Apache camp about nine miles east of Green Valley.
They killed an Apache and wounded several others. Two Maricopas were wounded; the
volunteers of B and C Companies looted and burned the rancheria before returning to Fort
McDowell on September 19. Several weeks later Company C led by Lieutenant Walker left Fort
McDowell again. On October 7, the Pimas routed an Apache band near the mouth of Tonto Creek
about fifty miles from McDowell. They killed five and captured eight Apaches. Both Indian
companies joined an expedition into Tonto Basin in late November. On the twenty- fourth, they
left Fort McDowell and remained in the field for six days. As there was no formal report of the
campaign, the force apparently found no apaches.
Colonel Bennett kept the volunteers in the field. In early December Lieutenant Walker’s Pima
Indians left Fort McDowell heading east for the Mazatzal Mountains. Eighty- two Pimas and forty
citizen Pimas, or ‘ Imelicms,” comprised Walker’s force. Two days out of camp, the men were
caught in a snowstorm, and suffered because they had no blankets or extra clothing. A scouting
party soon reported signs of Apaches in the fresh snow. The Indians apparently had been
searching for seeds. Believing that an Apache camp was nearby, Walker had his men saddle their
horses and prepare for a fight. Leaving the pack mules and supplies with a small guard, they
followed a small creek for three miles. Here, the volunteers discovered a recently abandoned
rancheria. There were twenty new huts at the camp, and from the footprints in the snow; the
party must have numbered about sixty persons. Walker sent part of his men back to where the
pack mules had been left for the night, and continued exploring. Across a nearby range, he
discovered a large deserted rancheria that soldiers had found on a previous trip. As their horses
were lame and the men needed clothing, most of the citizen Pimas and twenty- five of the Arizona
Volunteers returned to Fort McDowell.
On the morning of December 6, scouting continued, that night they camped at a spring called
“ Toke,” where Apaches had planted crops the season before. Contrary to custom, the volunteers
built fires because of the extreme cold. They saddled their horses before daylight the next
morning, leaving a dozen men to guard the camp and supplies. After riding into the mountains
for several miles, Walker halted the volunteers when Sergeant Antonio Azul noticed smoke that
he suspected to be from an Apache camp in the valley below. They immediately descended the
mountain and attacked the camp and captured one young man and one woman. The others had
fled through the snow into the dense forest. Footprints indicated that earlier that morning the
Apaches had crossed the mountain from the east to this camp. The soldiers also noted a small
patch of freshly planted wheat sticking through the snow. On searching the huts, Lieutenant
20
Hancock found a $ 100 legal tender note and an envelope containing a letter. From this incident,
Hancock named a nearby stream “ Greenback Creek.”
When Walker returned to his supply camp that evening he saw a number of captive Apaches.
After he had left camp that morning, the guards saw smoke rising at the opposite side of the
valley. Corporal Mos Awk and five privates mounted horses and surprised the Apache camp,
killing one woman and taking seven captives. All of the Apache men were absent from the
rancheria at the time of the attack. Tracks showed that they had followed Walker’s Pimas a
short distance that morning before the volunteers turned into the mountains. Walker now
decided to return to Fort McDowell, most of the horses were lame, their hooves worn down by
the volcanic stones in the mountains. Some of the pack mules had been so weakened by the
snowstorm that they could scarcely carry their aparajos, or pack saddles. On the night of
December 9, the volunteers reached McDowell, full of spirit and eager to celebrate their victory.
During January and February of 1866, Company B again took the field to search for Apache
camps. In some cases, the Apaches took the offensive. For example, on January 1, when a
detachment of Company C left Fort McDowell for the Pima Villages, Apaches attacked them and
killed two volunteers, Hawnik Maw and Juan Lewis. In January- February, Company B had killed
thirty- three Apaches and taken eight captives.
General McDowell arrived at the Pima Villages on February 12 to inspect the Maricopa and Pima
Indian companies. He was pleased with the condition of their weapons, and praised their
attitude towards scouting. Before McDowell left the Pima Villages, he received a message from a
group of Papago Indians near Tucson expressing their willingness to join the volunteers and fight
Apaches. The Papagos expected to be furnished weapons and rations while they were in service.
McDowell approved their voluntary service and suggested they be included in an expedition as
soon as possible.
In early March, Lieutenants Ewing and Walker led a combined group of Pima and Maricopa
volunteers on a scout. After riding for two days, they observed a smoke cloud on a nearby
mountain. At sunset, the party halted. While waiting for the moon to rise, the Indians formed a
circle around their prophet, the “ tobacco mancer.” The prophet arose and began to smoke
cigarettes. As soon as he had smoked one cigarette, an attendant handed him another, until at
last he began “ to tremble and fell – dead—( stupefied).” Everyone remained silent. After lying on
the ground for a few minutes, the prophet arose and spoke: “ My spirits followed the trail towards
the Mazatzal ( the trail they were then on) until it comes under ( the mountain) peaks and there it
saw many warriors.” He continued, “ it then followed to the north . . . and nearby found a small
rancheria . . . which formerly lived nearer here, but one of their number died and from that cause
they changed their abode.”
After this revelation, the volunteers took a short nap. When the moon had risen high in the sky;
Walker and Ewing led their men up the mountain in search of the rancheria. On a little flat
halfway to the top, they found a deserted camp. They followed the tracks of two persons and
halted where mescal had been cut the day before. Scouts reported another rancheria at the
mouth of the canyon just below. Leaving a small guard with the horses, the volunteers began
descending the mountain. While climbing down, holding on to bushes and roots here and there,
one soldier accidentally discharged his musket. A moment later, the Apaches below began
swarming and shouting “ What a chal!’ “ Sop- e- Ka!” “ Run— Run, A shot— A shot.” Ewing later
reported: “ Our boys leaped over the stones, scrambled through the brush and got down in time
to bring down some of the hindmost as the ( Apaches) climbed up the rocks on the opposite side
of where their huts were situated. The volunteers chased the Apaches until sunrise, killing
twenty and wounding several more. Ewing’s men destroyed the huts, baskets, cooking vessels,
clothing, and a large pot of mescal. Walker recognized a sack and tobacco pouch that had
belonged to a member of this company who had been killed in January. The rancheria was
situated about twenty miles from the Polas Blancas on the headwaters of the “ Kok- we- Tan,” or
Rattlesnake’s Creek, and about forty miles from Fort McDowell.
21
In mid- March, the volunteers were again in the field. A large number of citizen Pimas,
Maricopas, and Papagos accompanied the expedition. On order from Colonel Bennett, Orders
number 10, the blacksmith at Fort McDowell checked the horses of the volunteers and volunteer
citizens and applied new shoes as needed. The quartermaster furnished pack mules to carry
supplies. Bennett ordered a temporary subsistence depot established on Tonto Creek, and sent
825 pounds of pinole, dried beef, and other rations to the depot. Bennett spared no expense to
make the expedition the largest and most successful launched at Fort McDowell up to that time.
On March 27, Ewing and Walker led both companies of Arizona Volunteers east up the Gila River
with 260 Papagos and Pimas and forty Maricopas. When the men stopped for rests those without
rifles or muskets worked on war clubs. Scouts found a trail that contained fresh cattle and horse
tracks, and four days later, they entered the mountains. When an eclipse of the moon occurred,
the soldiers stopped. In the darkness they spotted a campfire several miles away. With
moonlight illuminating their trail, they left their horses and hastened toward the fire. At the
bottom of the canyon, they spotted footprints of people and animals. The officers ordered the
men to remove their shoes, and proceed quietly through the rocks, carrying their rifles securely.
At the edge of a small stony bluff, they discovered Apaches clapping their hands in an attempt to
alert their companions.
The volunteers attacked the camp, killing Indians of both sexes as they ran from their huts.
Upon reaching the area, they captured several women and children. The headman of the village
was shot when he ran from a hiding place. The volunteers killed a total of twenty- five Apaches,
took sixteen prisoners, and captured eight horses, which the Pimas claimed had been taken from
their own villages. Three Pima soldiers were wounded and one died later. The Pimas, mourning
the death of their fellow soldier, took some of their own clothing and burned the corpse. The
volunteers set fire to the huts, baskets, and skins. As they left the camp, they could see hostile
Apaches standing on large rocks on the mountain making howling noises and hand motions.
Ewing and Walker took their men several miles around the mountain to prevent being injured by
rocks, which the Apaches rolled down toward them. The volunteers returned to Fort McDowell in
high “ war” spirits. Noting the Indian’s enthusiasm, Colonel Bennett ordered another campaign
to leave directly from the Pima and Maricopa villages. But, the success of scouting expeditions
that followed immediately had mixed results. During May they covered 180 miles, but located no
Apache camps.
In late July, a Maricopa- Pima group returned to Fort McDowell, reporting they had killed two
Apaches in the mountains and three in a rancheria north of Fort McDowell. On the return trip
they had killed another and captured three. The horses were in bad condition because of
constant rains. Walker’s Pimas also scouted the mountains. On their return to Fort McDowell,
the Pimas also found a rancheria, but the enemy fled before the volunteers could attack. To the
north, at Camp Lincoln, other companies of Arizona Volunteers were active. Company E left
Lincoln on the night of February 11, 1866, on their first successful campaign. Four days earlier
on February 7, Captain Washburn had written Acting Governor Richard D. McCormick that he did
not anticipate any great expectations from his volunteers, but hoped in a few trials to
accomplish something by some of them.
Lieutenant Gallegos, Dr. Edward Palmer, the contract Army surgeon, and forty- five men of
Company E headed northeast with five days’ rations and thirty rounds of ammunition each. The
men wore moccasins made from worn out shoes and scraps of rawhide and buckskin. They
concealed themselves by day. At the South fork of Beaver Creek, around nine o’clock, scouts
reported they had followed two Indians to a camp located in a series of five caves. By two
o’clock in the morning, Gallegos had positioned his detachment in front of the caves. At
daybreak, Gallegos, shouting in the Apache dialect, called to the Indians to surrender, the
defenders opened fire. At mid- morning one Indian yelled back that he would die rather than
surrender. The Indians made a stubborn resistance, and many of them must have been shot
because the volunteers heard “ moans, shrieks, and yells” among the enemy. After the battle, the
caves presented a horrible sight. Dead of all ages and sexes lay mixed with household goods and
provisions, covered with dirt brought down from the ceilings by the firing. Thirty Indians were
killed in the lower caverns and twelve were captured.
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Because those higher in the cliffs would not surrender, Gallegos decided not to prolong the fight.
His men ransacked the lower caves, taking all provisions, buckskins, and other valuables that
could be carried back to camp. One soldier caustically remarked that the Indians were better
supplied than the Camp Lincoln commissary. Seven soldiers received wounds in the fight and all
received miner stone bruises from rocks, which the Indians threw in defense. Taking two women
and ten children as prisoners, the volunteers headed back to Camp Lincoln, arriving on the
morning of February 15. In his report to Captain Washburn, Gallegos praised his command for
bravery in the “ Battle of the Five Caves.” The volunteers, he said, had assaulted “ the mouths of
the caves ( through) arrows flying as thick as hail.”
Washburn and an escort of eighteen volunteers took the Apache prisoners to Fort Whipple on
February 19. There they received hearty congratulations for the excellent performance of his
men. The Army quartermaster issued buckskin for new sandals and several pounds of tobacco as
a token acknowledgment of their success. Acting Governor McCormick praised the volunteers,
saying their recent attack on the Apaches met the “ hearty and general commendation” of all
Arizonans. He suggested that other expeditions take the field during the spring and summer.
The Arizona Volunteers, he added, “ may do more than all ( others) who have preceded them in the
subjugation of the Apaches in this part of the Territory.” Washburn asked Captain John Green,
Post Adjutant at Fort Whipple, for the services of a guide named Antonio Dias, but Dias was on
another assignment. He inquired again about lances for his men to use in close contact with the
Apaches, and if none were available or could be made, he wanted Colt revolvers.
Dr. Palmer, who accompanied Lieutenant Gallegos’ expedition, published his account of the
“ Battle of the Five Caves” in the Prescott Weekly Miner. The volunteers had worn homemade
sandals, packed their own provisions, and traveled over 100 miles on foot during the campaign.
They had surprised the Apaches, whose dogs had not even heard the troops approach, so
“ stealthily had been their march.” Palmer praised the volunteers for their ability to traverse
rough country at night. Palmer felt that a few more battles would “ forever quiet the hellish
Apache.” He added that he had offered the men a dollar’s worth of tobacco for every Apache they
killed in the future, so “ that they may smoke the pipe of peace over the peaceable and harmless
condition of those who fall under their guns.”
In early March, the officers at Camp Lincoln prepared the volunteers for another campaign. They
had them make extra moccasins from the buckskin taken at the recent battle and tried to
instruct them in some tactical exercises for fighting the Indians. On March 1, Lieutenant
Gallegos and sixty men left Camp Lincoln, heading eastward along an Indian trail and carrying
five day’s rations. The scout was unsuccessful, the men returned five days later without having
seen an Indian. Captain Washburn and Gallegos agreed that, if they were to be effective, they
needed a guide familiar with the area.
Another campaign was launched on March 20 on foot. Lieutenant Cervantes and Dr. Palmer left
camp with twenty- six men of Company A, heading southeast and carrying ten days’ rations and
forty rounds of ammunition. At ten o’clock that night, after traveling about eighteen miles,
Cervantes rested his men for a few hours and then traveled twelve miles farther. The next day,
the scout continued. That night, the commander sent out men to look for campfires. At
midnight the scouts reported a large number of fires fifty or sixty miles away. But, Cervantes
felt the distance was too great, and changed his course. The volunteers moved on, with
Cervantes each night sending out scouts to look for campfires. When the scouts reported that a
camp was not far away, Cervantes ordered his command forward, but stopped two hours later at
the edge of a steep canyon situated at the headwaters of the Salt River. The location was about
seventy miles southeast of Camp Lincoln. Shortly before daylight, Cervantes sent eighteen men
toward the camp. Within twenty yards of the Indians, the soldiers began firing. In the ensuing
fight, the volunteers killed twenty- two Apaches, wounded seven of the eight that escaped,
captured two children, and destroyed the camp. Two soldiers received arrow wounds. The party
returned to Camp Lincoln on March 25.
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The volunteers had “ behaved admirably,” the Prescott Miner reported. They had been
constantly “ eager for the march, and returned in fine spirits.” This second victory within a
month had earned the Camp Lincoln forces a “ proud name, and . . . praises ( were) everywhere
shouted.” The soldiers understood how to fight the Apaches and were willing to undertake long
and tiresome night marches into the mountains to search for Apache camps. The volunteers,
with less expense, less parade, and less delay, were effectively ridding the country of its greatest
barrier to prosperity. In comparison with regular troops, the newspaper said, “ the spirit and
courage of the regulars could not be questioned, but they were not familiar with the country, had
little knowledge of the Apaches, and would not subsist on coarse food - - all of which were
requisite to successful campaigning in central Arizona.”
Campaigning into the mountains continued. On March 21, Lieutenant Gallegos, Dr. Palmer, and
fifty- six men of Company E scouted the country north of Camp Lincoln for six days. But the
volunteers made no contact with the enemy. They had located a small Apache camp, but the
Indians discovered them and hid in the brush and rocks. The soldiers also discovered several
more Indians carrying packs, but since it was nearly dark, the volunteers did not attempt to
follow.
In mid- April, despite short rations Captain Washburn led twenty- five men of Company E into the
mountains west of Camp Lincoln to improve the wagon route to Fort Whipple. Enroute the
volunteers attacked a party of thirty Apaches, killing six, wounding several more, and capturing
one. Two soldiers received severe sprained ankles in the fighting. At the time, a party of
twenty- seven Indians, armed with bows and arrows, ambushed Sergeant Miguel Elias and six
privates on escort duty between Camp Lincoln and Fort Whipple near Ash Creek. In the fighting,
two Indian men were killed and one wounded, but the other Indians drove off the pack mule
carrying all the soldiers’ blankets.
In late May, the supply situation at Camp Lincoln improved. The previous month, the lack of
provisions had permitted only short expeditions, and Washburn had sent thirty soldiers at a time
to transport supplies in small lots from Fort Whipple. With improved rations, Gallegos on May
23, with sixty members of Company A and E marched from Camp Lincoln on an eight- day scout
to the north. Four day later, the volunteers reached the Little Colorado and San Francisco
rivers. Here they found a large number of vacant camps in a deep canyon with Gallegos named
Calevera. By the end of the month, the volunteers were back at Lincoln.
In early June, a large group of Apaches, estimated at ninety persons, ambushed Sergeant Elias
and nine men of Company E at Grief Hill just west of Camp Lincoln. The soldiers were returning
from Fort Whipple, leading ten pack mules carrying corn and supplies and driving five head of
beef cattle. The Indians wounded Sergeant Elias and one private, drove off the cattle, and killed
two of the pack mules. Lieutenant Gallegos and thirty volunteers hurried to assist Sergeant Elias
but arrived too late to help. Gallegos again took the field, with fifty- two men of Companies A and
E, he headed northwest in an effort to find the Apaches who had taken the cattle. On June 16,
the volunteers found two recently abandoned rancherias and a cattle trail leading towards Black
Canyon. Three days later, they found an old deserted fortification. Here Gallegos decided to
return to camp because several of his men were sick.
In early July, Lieutenant Gallegos and fifty men of Company E scouted southeast towards White
River in the Tonto Basin. His scouts reported eighteen “ smokes from Indian fires” some twenty
miles away. Moving after dark, they headed toward the fires, and the next day located and
destroyed a small patch of corn. Reports soon reached Gallegos that his advance group had
found a rancheria and that the Indians were agitated and moving about. Gallegos hurried half of
his detachment into the mountains. The volunteers captured an old man who told them that
only five men, one woman, and a child had been at the camp, and that they had been there only
two days. When Gallegos took the old man to Camp Lincoln, the volunteers named him,
“ Paymaster.” As most of the men had received no pay up to that time, the wrinkled old man,
nearly blind, without a tooth, and almost naked, seemed to be as good a paymaster as they might
see. During the day, the old Indian moved freely about the camp, but the soldiers locked him up
at night. One morning, he was missing from camp, and a search began. The volunteers
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discovered him in a ravine where he had fallen. As he had injured himself so badly that he could
not be moved, one of the volunteers shot him where he lay to end his suffering.
On July 17, Captain Washburn led ten soldiers mounted on mules up the Verde River on a two-day
expedition. At a distance of thirty miles, they came upon a new rancheria of twenty- six
lodges, but Indians discovered the soldiers before they could attack the camp. The Apaches ran
into the hills, and began screaming and making “ grotesque jestures ( sic).” Washburn’s men
looted the camp, and started back to Camp Lincoln, enroute they found two of the five cattle
taken in early June. This was the first fresh meat the volunteers had in several months. In
addition to campaigning, the volunteers at Camp Lincoln spent much of July and August
escorting supply parties from Fort Whipple to Camp Lincoln, and guarding a field of ripe corn at
the Clear Fork settlement south of the camp.
While the troops at Camp Lincoln on the Verde were scouting almost weekly for the hostile
Apaches, the volunteers of Lieutenant Hutton’s Company F at Skull Valley southwest of Prescott
were performing more prosaic but equally hazardous duty. As early as January 1866, Hutton
drew on his company for escort duty. He detailed five men to accompany a wagon enroute to
Prescott from La Paz. Eight miles from the Skull valley camp, a band of fifty Indians attacked
the wagon, killing two of the guards and wounding a third man in a three- hour fight. The wagon
contained a large cargo of ammunition from the Fort Yuma Depot for Fort Whipple. Hutton
regularly sent men to escort freight wagons along the road from Prescott to La Paz, and to
protect ranches at Skull Valley throughout the spring.
In late May, fifteen of Lieutenant Hutton’s company undertook their first campaign. This group,
on foot, started into the mountains to search for Indian camps. The foray was unsuccessful and
the party returned to camp on June 1. At the end of June, thirteen members of Company F
again scouted in the mountains, but found no Indians. On July 13, Hutton marched on foot with
eighteen Arizona Volunteers and eighteen California Volunteers from Fort Whipple north of
Prescott. After winding through the mountains for nearly two weeks, Hutton discovered fresh
Indian signs, but a steep canyon wall prevented the men and the pack animals from getting
down. They camped there for the night, the next morning they descended the mountain range at
an angle of forty- five degrees for nearly a mile. At the bottom, the party surprised an Indian
camp. They killed an Indian, wounded two others, captured two children, and burned the camp.
The following day, Lieutenant Hutton’s party reached the Verde River. They passed an
abandoned rancheria that had accommodated about fifteen Indians, and saw smoke signals on
the west side of the Verde some five miles away and several caves, forts, earthworks, and fresh
Indian signs. Hutton’s volunteers reached Camp Lincoln on July 27, here they rested for two
days, then returned to Skull Valley. Hutton’s expedition had traversed three hundred miles of
lava stone country. It had rained nearly every day. He praised the men for enduring every
hardship with the “ greatest degree of cheerfulness.” He reported that his men had been issued
double- soled nailed shoes, but they had worn out after ten or fifteen days, so the men had to
make moccasins from the skin of a bear they had killed.
On August 11, word came from the leader of a wagon train about eight miles from Lieutenant
Hutton’s camp that a large band of Indians had stopped it. As they hurried to assist, the soldiers
saw seven teamsters and four guards talking with five Indians. Four of the Indians professed to
be seeking peace and returned to their group. The fifth Indian was taken to Hutton’s camp for
questioning. An interpreter recognized the captive as the notorious La Paz Charley, although the
Indian tried to conceal his identity by talking through his teeth. Charley said that the band
wanted mules from the wagon train. He warned that they were determined to “ clean out” the
valley, claiming to own in addition to the wood, water, and grass, all of the corn recently planted
there by the settlers. He said the band included Apache Mojaves, Mojaves, Hualapais, and
Apache Tontos.
Irataba, Chief of the Mojaves, was aware of their intentions and had warned them not to leave the
reservation. La Paz Charley said that the Apache Tontos had encouraged the other Indians to
leave the reservation, capture the wagon train, and kill the Arizona Volunteers at Skull Valley.
The next day, the hills around Skull Valley swarmed with Indians. Some ventured into camp,
25
claiming to be friendly Apache Mojaves. Lieutenant Hutton talked with one of them at a distance
of two hundred yards. The conversation was about the same as the day before. The Indian told
Hutton that George Leahy, Indian agent at La Paz, wanted fifty buckskins and had told the
Indians to get them wherever possible. Hutton detected that the Indian was lying, and he sent a
messenger to Fort Whipple to report the matter. The band had strayed forty miles beyond the
line laid down by the District Commander of Arizona. Hutton was advised to punish the Indians,
“ but to use discretion and not force the matter.”
On August 13, the wagon train left camp, heading for Prescott with an escort of four soldiers. A
mile and a half away, Indians approached the wagons attempting to show their identification
papers. Lieutenant Hutton brought up the rest of his men, and instructed the Indians to leave
their bows and arrows behind. Nearly eighty Indians left their bows and arrows and approached
the wagons again. As they approached, some drew knives from their clothing and brandished
them in the air. Hutton sent a sentinel to a hill nearby to study the situation. Shortly, he
reported that five Indians with guns were in the rocks above and that the hills were full of
Indians exchanging arm signals. About this time, an old squaw cried out in Spanish, “ Pitch into
them!” – “ You can whip them with your knives!” She shouted the command several times with
increase emphasis. Hutton warned his men to keep the Indians at a distance. But the Indians
came closer. One Indian, who claimed to be a chief, jabbed his knife at a teamster, trying to
conceal his movement with buckskin on his left arm. When another Indian thrust the knife at a
volunteer and struck his hand, the soldier killed him. Close fighting then broke out and raged
for forty- five minutes. The volunteers killed twenty- three Indians and wounded around fifty
others. Hutton believed that Hitachepitche, a chief of the Hualapais, was among the Indians
killed. One volunteer was killed, and one received severe cuts on the hand, but the teamsters
were uninjured.
From January through August of 1866, the Arizona Volunteers had performed arduous duty in
central Arizona. Military and governmental leaders expressed great satisfaction at their
determination and success in hunting down Apaches. Maricopas, Pimas, and Mexicans all eagerly
took the field and pushed forward readily, and relished the opportunity to kill their hereditary
enemies. Their methods were not overlooked, as they served as important examples for the
regular army to follow in later efforts to subjugate the hostile Apache. Settlers, miners, and
travelers all praised the volunteers for helping create zones of relative safety in a hostile land.
Camp Life
Throughout their enlistment, the Arizona Volunteers lived in primitive conditions in camp. Few
permanent buildings were constructed at the posts where they served. Consequently, life in
garrison was hard. The men generally lived in brush shelters and had limited rations. Hostile
Indians constantly lurked in the vicinity, and two volunteers were brutally killed on the Verde
while fishing near the post. Despite these hardships, however, the morale of the men remained
high during their period of service.
In early March of 1866, General John S. Mason took notice of the needs of the Arizona
Volunteers. Paragraph seven of General Mason’s plan stipulated that no permanent building
would be constructed at any post for the volunteers, except those absolutely necessary to house
supplies and for treatment of the sick and injured. No quarters “ other than shades or shelters”
were to be erected for the enlisted men. Furthermore, only a small guard would be detailed for
each post. In this way, the balance of the soldiers could be kept “ constantly on the move after
Indians— returning to their posts only to refit and for supplies.” From the start, the Arizona
Volunteers built their own quarters. In several instances— at Fort McDowell, Camp Lincoln, and
Skull Valley— they actually constructed an entire post.
The plan to construct temporary shelters provoked sharp criticism. Thus, the volunteers at
Camp Lincoln, one soldier wrote, from the start had " no tents, deficient clothin ( sic), and half
rations.” The shelters the men put up consisted of willow branches and poles covered with earth.
At Camp Lincoln, Dr. Palmer hired several soldiers to build a hut to serve as a dispensary.
26
Materials for this facility included reed for sides, roof, and doors. The inside was lined with
blankets to keep out the wind, but it was a " dark, dirty miserable hovel." he later said.
The problem of supplying the posts in Arizona was critical in 1866. When the War Department
transferred Arizona from the Department of New Mexico to the Department of California, supplies
for the new district came from California via Fort Yuma and Fort Mohave on the Colorado River.
Low river levels during the winter of 1865 caused long delays in up- stream transportation. Once
steamers reached Fort Mohave, delivering food and equipment overland by wagon to the
scattered outposts required a great amount of time. The Arizona Volunteers often were unable to
take to the field because of severe shortages of rations. In April when Camp Lincoln and Skull
Valley were completely without flour, coffee, and sugar, the commissaries issued to each man
three- quarters of a pound of rice instead of flour. Rations issued to the volunteers on campaigns
usually included dried beef and coffee, when they were available, and pinole, a food made of
roasted, ground, and sweetened corn or wheat. Pinole consisted of about one part of sugar to two
parts of corn or wheat and was mixed with water. This mixture was supposedly “ very
refreshing.”
Clothing and shoes were equally deficient. The volunteers felt that they received few clothes
because they were considered as “ scum” at the posts where they had enlisted or briefly served.
As a result, they had to endure the cold weather without proper clothing, bedding, or shoes.
Some of the volunteers without shoes tied their feet up in rags. At Camp Lincoln, most of the
men without shoes managed to obtain enough untanned rawhide to make their own moccasins,
which they called “ teguas.” The soles were turned up at the sides so that the sides would not
wear out quickly, and also would render broader soles. A hole was left in the sole so a man could
shake out gravel and sand easily.
Although the soldiers suffered from inadequate shelters and improper food and clothing, they
were well equipped for warfare against the Apaches. According to a report of the Office of the
Chief of Ordnance, Company A was armed with the .58 caliber, Springfield rifled muskets. The
other companies, except Company B, which was not in the report, received .54 caliber, U. S.
Model 1840 rifles. The June 1866 report for the regiment showed only one rifle as unserviceable.
One company had bayonets. All companies received cap pouches, cone picks, gun slings, waist
belts and plates, and screwdrivers and cone wrenches. Three companies had a limited number of
ball screws, spring vices, tompions, and arms chests. The inventory of cartridges for the
regiment at that time included 770 rounds of .58 caliber cartridges and 9,879 rounds of .54
caliber cartridges.
Camp life, of course, had diversions. At Camp Lincoln the records indicate that there were
sixteen wives and female companions living with the men. The women were sourly denounced by
Dr. Palmer as coming from that “ mixed race of Spanish and Indians that the Catholic Church has
made into a peculiar kind of Christians.” Whenever the volunteers returned from an expedition,
the women formed into a procession and marched out of camp to meet them. Palmer said the
women were “ mostly prostitutes living promiscuously among the soldiers; and as soon as one’s
means of support gave out, they took another mate.”
The volunteers frequently experienced a scarcity of smoking tobacco. As a substitute they used
willow bark, “ old checoa” ( unidentifiable), tealeaves, and fresh coffee grounds, which had a strong
narcotic effect. The men also cooked, dried, and smoked the leaves of the mescal plant. This
concoction was very pleasant and sweet, but it would gum up a pipe.
Even at camp, the volunteers often found life precarious. To supplement their diet, they
occasionally walked down to the Verde River to fish. In late February of 1866, two men went
fishing. One man returned early, but the other, Roque Ramirez, stayed for a while. The next
morning a search party found his body in the river, stiff and cold with three arrow wounds.
There was a humorous sequel to this tragedy. The widow, Maria Antonio Ressetto, was soon
beset with “ would- be husbands.” She asked Captain Washburn to help her select another man;
Washburn suggested Private Loreto Hernandez of his company. He instructed Dr. Palmer, who
was going to Fort Whipple for supplies, to arrange their marriage.
27
On May 1, at Prescott, the justice of the peace “ tied the conjugal knot” for the couple,
conducting the ceremony through the aid of an interpreter. Dignitaries at Prescott attended the
wedding. Governor McCormick prepared the marriage certificate. Dr. Palmer paid his share of
the celebration, contributing $ 28 “ to make the couple happy.” Officers at Fort Whipple
contributed wine so liberally that the occasion became one of “ great Jollity.” Reflecting Later,
Palmer noted that the civil ceremony provided just as legal and binding a marriage as that
performed by the Catholic Church. The Prescott Weekly Miner patronizingly wished the couple
“ untold tortillas and frijoles and a long line of fandango loving heirs.” Palmer and the newly
married couple left at the end of the week for Camp Lincoln with two wagons of supplies.
Several of the volunteer companies experienced much illness. Men recruited in southern Arizona
came down with bad colds brought on by wet weather and exposure from sleeping on the ground;
others were prostrated by malarial conditions along the Verde River and by improper diet. Every
soldier from southern Arizona, except Captain Washburn, suffered from various forms of fever.
In August, a few days before the first troops at Camp Lincoln were discharged from service, as
many as sixty at a time reported to Dr. Palmer for medical attention. Palmer said that the fever
“ so prevalent in Arizona had assumed a tropical nature.” Various forms of typhoid and bilious
disorders resulted from continued attacks of fever caused by the rains and excessive humidity.
Palmer said the Verde Valley was hemmed in on each side by mountains, which prevented a free
sweep of winds. In sharp contrast, not a single individual from the Indian companies was
reported sick on the Post Returns.
The Arizona Volunteers also encountered other difficulties. As they spoke no common language,
translators were always required. Two of the officers were Mexicans; but only one spoke both
English and Spanish. Reports written by one officer had to be translated from Spanish to English
before they were sent to District Headquarters. One officer spoke the Pima Language. Other
officers spoke combinations of English and Maricopa, English and Pima, or English and Spanish.
One of the Mexican officers spoke the Apache dialect, and no doubt, some of the Pimas and the
Maricopas spoke an Apache dialect as well.
In early August, Governor McCormick, his wife, and Adjutant General Garvin visited Camp
Lincoln. A detachment of ten volunteers met the governor’s party at the King Woolsey’s Agua
Fria Ranch as an escort to the Verde Valley. While at Camp Lincoln, Captain Washburn,
Lieutenant Gallegos and his wife, and several soldiers accompanied McCormick on a leisurely
visit to some Indian ruins, presently known as Montezuma’s Castle, set on a high bluff.
McCormick considered them to have one been “ substantial homes,” and among the most “ perfect
and remarkable in the Territory.” He said that every visitor to the Verde should see them.
Earlier in the year, several attempts had been made to retain the Arizona Volunteers in Federal
service. In early May, Colonel Bennett at Fort McDowell had petitioned the Adjutant General for
the District of Arizona to either extend the volunteer unit or to replace it with a full native
regiment for an all out war against the Apaches. The service and experience of the volunteers
would enable them to perform even better in the future. Bennett suggested that Pimas,
Maricopas, Papagos, and Mexicans were familiar with the country, frontier life, and hardships,
and would be of great assistance in bringing the hostile Apaches to terms. Careful selection of
officers would ensure “ sobriety, good judgement, energy and integrity.” If the Federal
government did not retain the volunteers in service, Colonel Bennett urged that they be allowed
to retain their arms and accoutrements after discharge. In this way, the men could continue
fighting the Apaches whenever an opportunity presented itself.
On June 1, Governor McCormick had written to Secretary of War Stanton urging him to retain
the Arizona Volunteers. McCormick estimated the number of hostile Indians in the territory to
be fewer than 1,000 of a total population of 5,000. The hostiles roamed approximately 25,000
square miles of mountain and desert country, an area nearly the size of the states of
Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Their domain lay primarily in eastern and central
Arizona. Apache raids had focused on the roads connecting Tucson, Pima Villages, Wickenburg,
28
and Prescott, and the mining and farming camps scattered along the Hassayampa, Agua Fria,
Verde, Salinas, and Gila rivers, and along the Arizona- Sonora border.
McCormick believed the only way to obtain a permanent peace with the Apaches was to fight and
conquer them, not through defensive operations, but through hunting them in the mountains.
To offer the Apaches a reservation and expect them to stay on it, or make a treaty with them,
would be to exhibit gross ignorance of the Indians’ disposition. He thought the Apaches must be
driven from their “ retreats, however difficult to reach, until they sued for peace.” McCormick
felt that every effort must be made to prevent the Apaches from planting crops, harvesting the
mescal ranges, and from “ jerking” wild game or stolen beef.
In early July of 1866, however, the War Department had officially rejected the possibility of
extending the enlistment of the First Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment. There was no law
under which the native soldiers could be retained for Federal service, and if a decision were made
to organize another regiment of native Arizonans, special legislation would be necessary for
subsisting, equipping, and paying the soldiers.
With no way of retaining the Arizona Volunteers in service in the Arizona Territory, the
commanders set about preparing to muster their men out of service. Conditions of camp life and
hardships in the field had not been too severe for the hearty Maricopas, Pimas, and Mexicans, for
they had realized from the start that “ hunting Apaches” would not be an easy undertaking.
Discharge
When official news reached the Arizona Territory that the War Department had rejected
extending the Arizona Volunteers in the Federal service, the military leaders began preparation
for discharging a regiment that contained 333 enlisted men and ten officers. There were
discharge papers to be completed, men to be paid for their term of service, some had received no
pay for nearly a full year, and final assessments and reports to be made of the impact of the
Arizona volunteers on the Apaches in Arizona.
The first companies discharged were at Camp Lincoln. Captain Washburn went to Fort Whipple
on August 4 to secure discharge forms, final statements, and muster rolls for Companies A and E,
whose enlistment would end before the close of the month. Back at Camp Lincoln he ordered
those men in Company E whose enlistment would end by August 11 to march immediately to
Fort Whipple. Sixty- five men were mustered out between August 12 and November 7. First
Lieutenant John M. Ver Mehr, who had served as an aide to General Mason, had been discharged
on June 27. Captain Hiram S. Washburn and Second Lieutenant Manuel Gallegos were released
on November 7. Company records indicated that Private Roque Ramirez had been killed by
Indians, three men died of Illness: Vicente Bracamontes, Felipe Cordova, and Santaigo Guiterrez.
Six men deserted Company E shortly before they received orders to march from Fort Mason to
Fort Whipple: Antonio Cota, Encarnacion Dias, Abelardo Flores, Jose Ma. Mondragon, Plutarco
Morales, and Juan Vega.
Twenty- eight volunteers of Company A terminated their service between August 23 and October
15. Second Lieutenant Primitivo Cervantes had resigned on June 7, 1866. First Lieutenant
William H. Ford who served also as post quartermaster at Camp Lincoln, had replaced him. Ford
received his discharge on October 7, 1866. There was no record of deserters and illness for the
company. One soldier, Private John Broderick had been killed on April 20.
By mid- September Captain Washburn’s command at Camp Lincoln was reduced to fewer than a
dozen men. He reported to Adjutant General Garvin that Indians were beginning to steal corn
from the farms along the Verde River at the rate of thirty to forty bushels a night. There was but
one soldier at the camp who was able to shoulder a musket, and he was left to guard what
remained of the commissary stores. Washburn felt the Indians might attack his camp and take
the remaining livestock. He wrote: “ if assistance does not come very soon, I shall have to
abandon what government property I am trying to protect, and seek security for animals and
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myself.” Settlers at the Clear Creek settlement helped him transfer the government supplies
from Camp Lincoln to the settlement six miles south of Camp Lincoln.
One night near the end of September, Lieutenant Gallegos, an enlisted man, and two citizens
named Lang and Ceiderman went to the cornfields to watch for Indians. When the men arrived,
they heard the Indians already there gathering corn. Ceiderman discharged his shotgun, which
was loaded with wire cartridges and buckshot. The blast killed an Indian woman carrying about a
bushel of corn from the field. The next day, the men dragged the woman’s body along the trail to
the field and hung it up in a field to frighten other Indians away. The fields were quiet. On
September 29, Captain George M. Downey, commanding Company C, First Battalion, Fourteenth
Infantry, relieved Captain Washburn at Camp Lincoln.
The first complete company of Arizona Volunteers was discharged from service on September 11,
1866, at Fort McDowell. This was Company B of Maricopa Indians commanded by First
Lieutenant Thomas Ewing and Captain Juan Chevereah. Second Lieutenant Charles Riedt was
mustered out two days later. The men were allowed to retain their firearms and accoutrements.
Value of the weapons was six dollars each, or a total of $ 522. Muster rolls showed four members
of the company had died in battles with the Apaches: McGill, Yose, Goshe Zep, and Duke. There
was no record of illnesses. Six men had deserted Company B: Beba Apmaya, Denyan Mabker,
Conina, Homor Goder, Mru Sio, and Morkenb.
Company C of Pima Indians was mustered out on September 13 also at Fort McDowell. Captain
John D. Walker, First Lieutenant William A. Hancock, and Second Lieutenant Antonio Azul were
also discharged the same day. Eighty- four men retained firearms valued at 513.23. Three Pimas
had been killed in battles with the Apaches: Hownik Mawkum, Juan Lewis, and Au Papat. There
was no record of illness. Susan Poche and Lewis deserted Company C on December 1, 1865.
Company F at Skull Valley was discharged from service in October and five on dates after
October 31. Second Lieutenant Oscar F. Hutton was probably discharged from service on
November 7 with Captain Washburn, but that cannot be substantiated from the muster rolls. The
value of firearms retained by them was $ 126.65. Three soldiers had been killed in engagements
with hostile Apaches: Jose Anselmo, Bernardino Escalante, and Paulino Espinosa; and six men
had deserted: Jose Ma. Romero, Concepcion Morales, Jose Natamee, Canuto Perez, Jose Romero,
and Juan Jose Balenzuela.
The question of pay for the Arizona Volunteers rankled for quite a while. At Fort McDowell, the
volunteer companies had been paid only once during their service. Colonel Bennett, wrote his
superior about the problem. On November 24, Paymaster General Benjamin W. Brice in
Washington, D. C. ordered Paymaster Leonard to stop payments after October 31. Money was
short for paying troops being mustered out of service. As his two paymasters would be detained
in Arizona until after the December 31 muster, Paymaster Leonard let the matter ride. In early
August of 1866, Paymaster General Brice stated that he anticipated no future delays in the
payment of troops on the Pacific Coast. The California Volunteers had been mustered out, and
there were a sufficient number of paymasters and funds to meet all demands.
The Arizona Volunteers had been a unique group. Officers of those companies comprised mostly
of Mexican soldiers reported discipline as good; one commander described his command as
“ obedient.” The Pima and Maricopa commanders described discipline among their commands as
“ good for Indians,” and all commanders praised their men for their military response. Despite
trying circumstances of service, the number of deserters and casualties had been low. From the
five companies of nearly 350 men, only twenty had deserted. Company A, composed of Mexicans
from central Arizona reported no deserters. The casualty record for the one- year of service was
remarkably low. Only ten volunteers had been killed in battles with the Apaches, Five men died
of illness and the number seriously wounded was thirteen.
Their effectiveness in the field was demonstrated by their accomplishments. Reports of the
number of Apaches killed varied because of the possibility of double counting among the Pima
and Maricopa companies. However, with this possibility in mind, some 150 to 173 Apaches were
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killed, thirty- eight were seriously wounded, and fifty- eight were captured. The Pima and
Maricopa volunteers captured eight horses, and the Mexican volunteers at Camp Lincoln lost
three pack mules and five heads of cattle, four of which were later found.
The volunteers received lavish praise from the editor of the Prescott Weekly Miner. These men
“ of whom many expected no efficient service,” had killed a large number of Apaches and had
wounded and captured even more, he said. The volunteers showed that they could make short
and inexpensive work of subjugating the Apache. It was regrettable that the volunteer soldiers
had to remain in camp for want of rations because they had shown their capacity for
campaigning. Many observers admitted that the Apaches could not be subdued by soldiers who
had to spend time building posts or scouting in the mountains encumbered with pack trains.
The quick night march on foot, with few provisions and a single blanket, was the “ telling
maneuver and the only one which will insure success.” The editor suggested that the method of
warfare used by the Arizona Volunteers be adopted by the regular Army.
The Arizona Volunteer Infantry also received praise from territorial leaders. Governor
McCormick thought that the volunteers were the best- suited soldiers for Apache Warfare. Most
of the regulars had no knowledge of the country, little interest in it, and felt exiled in Arizona.
He was not convinced that the Companies of Pimas and Maricopas were reliable. While they were
bitterly opposed to the Apaches and killed a great number, they were too superstitious to be good
soldiers. The Indians believed in witchcraft, and many were unwilling to undertake campaigns
until their wizards had indicated that the signs were right for them. Upon killing even a single
Indian, the Pima and Maricopa soldiers insisted upon returning to their villages to celebrate.
There, they sauntered about in indolence, “ pompously arrayed in their uniforms, including
overcoats, even when the mercury marks over tropical temperature.”
McCormick praised the Mexican soldiers. They were determined to avenge the loss of friends
and property to the Apaches. The Mexicans preferred active duty to camp life, could make long
night marches into the mountains, and relished making surprise daylight attacks upon the
Apaches. The Mexicans could subsist on jerked beef and pinole, which was the most inexpensive
and easily obtained food. They also were willing to harass the Apaches and, if necessary to
exterminate them.
Captain Washburn stated that he had never before spent such unremitting toil as his sixteen and
one- half months of service in Arizona. If the needed supplies had been furnished, the record of
his command would have been greater. Washburn thought that the volunteers by far were
superior to any others for field service in Arizona. He thought that 300 volunteers, well
officered, at an annual expense of less than $ 800 per man could within two years rid the
territory of the greatest obstacle to its progress. The volunteers he commanded had fearlessly
carried warfare into the heart of Indian country around present- day Globe, the Graham Valley,
and as far as the Natural Bridge in the northern part of Gila County.
In the fall of 1866, the third Arizona Territorial Legislature passed a memorial praising the
volunteers for their outstanding service in hunting and destroying “ the wily and implacable
Apache” during their year of service. The soldiers had often pursued the Apache “ barefoot and
upon half rations” and had inflicted “ greater punishment upon the Apaches than all other troops
in the territory.” Although the financial conditions of the territorial government prohibited
offering the men a bonus, the legislators congratulated the soldiers for a job well done. The
regiment had set a precedent for future United States military subjugation of the Apaches, and
proved the value of Indians as scouts for frontier duty.
Raised to supplement the California Volunteers, whose term of service was ending, the first
Arizona Volunteer Infantry Regiment compiled an enviable record during its one year of service.
Campaigning from established bases with a minimum of supplies, transportation, and rations,
they struck fear into the stronghold of Apache communities in central Arizona. Commanded by
both Anglo and native officers, these men performed as shock troop, or militia, in one of the
roughest terrain in the Southwest. On foot and by horseback, they traveled cross- country at
night to scout for and attack Apaches wherever they could be found. For a young territory
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without funds, which was attempting to attract settlers, provide safety for its highways, and
encourage a fledgling mining industry, the Arizona Volunteers brought stability and safety to a
mineral- rich region. Their story deserves to be remembered in the history of the Southwest.
During the following years there were many skirmishes between U. S. troopers and Apache
warriors. However the U. S. Army returned to the West after the end of the Civil War to campaign
against the Indians. As the Apaches had a difficult time holding out against troops, in the spring
of 1871 about 500 came in to Camp Grant to ask for peace. Their most important leader was
Eskiminzin. As it just so happened, there was a young commander at the fort who was
sympathetic to the Apaches’ difficult position. His name was Lieutenant Royal E. Whitman and
Eskiminzin began to consider him his friend.
On December 19, 1872, Fort Grant was established at the foot of Mount Graham by direction of
General Crook. In January of 1873, eleven companies of cavalry and infantry were transferred to
Fort Grant, under the command of Major Brown. They immediately started work on the
construction of a Commissary building, Officer's quarters and a wagon road up the side of Mount
Graham. Troops patrolled southeast Arizona and western New Mexico chasing small marauding
bands of Apache Indians and keeping the peace. Troops from Fort Grant participated in the
military campaign against Geronimo. In 1888, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry were used
in civil duties and chasing train robbers. Starting in 1900, Fort Grant was a collection point for
troops going to the Philippines during the Spanish American War. On October 4, 1905, Captain
Jenkins marched Troop D across the parade grounds for the final time. The troops were
transferred to Fort Huachuca and Fort Grant was left to a caretaker. In 1912, as part of
conferring statehood on the Arizona Territory, the federal government turned over Fort Grant to
the New State to be used as the State Industrial School for Wayward Boys and Girls. In 1968, the
Arizona State Legislature passed a bill making the Fort Grant State Industrial School a part of
the State Department of Corrections. In 1973, Fort Grant became an adult male prison. In
December of 1997, the Arizona State Prison at Fort Grant became the Fort Grant Unit of the
Arizona State Prison Complex
On 30 April 1871 a horrible event occurred that was forever to strain relations between the
Apaches and the white man. On that date, a group of men out of Tucson, many of whom were
Papagos and Mexicans, but their leaders were Am